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11
Sep
08
ping.fm
Presiden Iran saat ini: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ketika di wawancara oleh TV Fox (AS) soal kehidupan pribadinya: “Saat anda melihat di cermin setiap pagi, apa yang anda katakan pada diri anda?”
Jawabnya: “Saya melihat orang di cermin itu dan mengatakan padanya:”Ingat, kau tak lebih dari seorang pelayan, hari di depanmu penuh dengan tanggung jawab yang berat, yaitu melayani bangsa Iran .”
Berikut adalah gambaran Ahmadinejad, yang membuat orang ternganga:
Jawabnya: “Saya melihat orang di cermin itu dan mengatakan padanya:”Ingat, kau tak lebih dari seorang pelayan, hari di depanmu penuh dengan tanggung jawab yang berat, yaitu melayani bangsa Iran .”
Berikut adalah gambaran Ahmadinejad, yang membuat orang ternganga:
1. Saat pertama kali menduduki kantor kepresidenan Ia menyumbangkan seluruh karpet Istana Iran yang sangat tinggi nilainya itu kepada masjid2 di Teheran dan menggantikannya dengan karpet biasa yang mudah dibersihkan.
2. Ia mengamati bahwa ada ruangan yang sangat besar untuk menerima dan menghormati tamu VIP, lalu ia memerintahkan untuk menutup ruang tersebut dan menanyakan pada protokoler untuk menggantinya dengan ruangan biasa dengan 2 kursi kayu, meski sederhana tetap terlihat impresive.
3. Di banyak kesempatan ia bercengkerama dengan petugas kebersihan di sekitar rumah dan kantor kepresidenannya.
4. Di bawah kepemimpinannya, saat ia meminta menteri2 nya untuk datang kepadanya dan menteri2 tsb akan menerima sebuah dokumen yang ditandatangani yang berisikan arahan2 darinya, arahan tersebut terutama sekali menekankan para menteri2nya untuk tetap hidup sederhana dan disebutkan bahwa rekening pribadi maupun kerabat dekatnya akan diawasi, sehingga pada saat menteri2 tsb berakhir masa jabatannya dapat meninggalkan kantornya dengan kepala tegak.
5. Langkah pertamanya adalah ia mengumumkan kekayaan dan propertinya yang terdiri dari Peugeot 504 tahun 1977, sebuah rumah sederhana warisan ayahnya 40 tahun yang lalu di sebuah daerah kumuh di Teheran. Rekening banknya bersaldo minimum, dan satu2nya uang masuk adalah uang gaji bulanannya.
6. Gajinya sebagai dosen di sebuah universitas hanya senilai US$ 250.
7. Sebagai tambahan informasi, Presiden masih tinggal di rumahnya. Hanya itulah yang dimilikinyaseorang presiden dari negara yang penting baik secara strategis, ekonomis, politis, belum lagi secara minyak dan pertahanan. Bahkan ia tidak mengambil gajinya, alasannya adalah bahwa semua kesejahteraan adalah milik negara dan ia bertugas untuk menjaganya.
8. Satu hal yang membuat kagum staf kepresidenan adalah tas yg selalu dibawa sang presiden tiap hari selalu berisikan sarapan; roti isi atau roti keju yang disiapkan istrinya dan memakannya dengan gembira, ia juga menghentikan kebiasaan menyediakan makanan yang dikhususkan untuk presiden.
9. Hal lain yang ia ubah adalah kebijakan Pesawat Terbang Kepresidenan, ia mengubahnya menjadi pesawat kargo sehingga dapat menghemat pajak masyarakat dan untuk dirinya, ia meminta terbang dengan pesawat terbang biasa dengan kelas ekonomi.
10. Ia kerap mengadakan rapat dengan menteri2 nya untuk mendapatkan info tentang kegiatan dan efisiensi yang sdh dilakukan, dan ia memotong protokoler istana sehingga menteri2 nya dapat masuk langsung ke ruangannya tanpa ada hambatan. Ia juga menghentikan kebiasaan upacara2 seperti karpet merah, sesi foto, atau publikasi pribadi, atau hal2 spt itu saat mengunjungi berbagai tempat di negaranya.
11. Saat harus menginap di hotel, ia meminta diberikan kamar tanpa tempat tidur yg tidak terlalu besar karena ia tidak suka tidur di atas kasur, tetapi lebih suka tidur di lantai beralaskan karpet dan selimut. Apakah perilaku tersebut merendahkan posisi presiden?
Presiden Iran tidur di ruang tamu rumahnya sesudah lepas dari pengawal2nya yg selalu mengikuti kemanapun ia pergi. Menurut koran Wifaq, foto2 yg diambil oleh adiknya tersebut, kemudian dipublikasikan oleh media masa di seluruh dunia, termasuk amerika.
12. Sepanjang sholat, anda dapat melihat bahwa ia tidak duduk di baris paling muka
13. Bahkan ketika suara azan berkumandang, ia langsung mengerjakan sholat dimanapun ia berada meskipun hanya beralaskan karpet biasa
14. Ia juga tidak mau bersalaman dengan wanita yang bukan muhrimnya, cukup menundukan kepala sebagai rasa hormat
Mudah-mudahan di pemilu yang akan datang kita akan memiliki Presiden seperti itu…
Kamis, 17/01/2008 11:45 WIB
Fransiska Ari Wahyu – detikinet
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Monyet rhesus (ist.)
Amerika Serikat – Para ahli di Amerika Serikat (AS) dan Jepang telah sukses menggunakan aktivitas otak monyet untuk mengendalikan robot humanoid (menyerupai manusia). Proyek yang dipimpin oleh Miguel Nicolelis, profesor neurobiologi di Universitas Duke ini telah berlangsung selama 10 tahun.
Setahun yang lalu, para dokter menanamkan 64 elektroda dan chip komputer ke dalam otak dua monyet rhesus. Kemudian merekam sinyal elektrik dari 200 sel otak binatang tersebut saat tengah berjalan di treadmill. Sinyal itu ditransmisikan melalui internet kepada para ahli di Computational Brain Project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency. Informasi tersebut disalurkan ke robot humanoid yang ternyata merespon aktivitas otak monyet.
“Normalnya butuh waktu 250 millisecon bagi otak untuk menciptakan sinyal dan bagi kaki untuk bergerak,” ujar Nicolelis. “Dalam rentang waktu yang sama, kami dapat mengirimkan sinyal ke Jepang dan mendapatkan video yang menunjukkan respon robot terhadap sinyal tersebut. Jika hal ini dapat dilakukan pada pasien lumpuh, maka pasien akan mampu menggerakkan kakinya lagi,” tambahnya.
Nicolelis juga mengungkapkan reaksi si monyet tatkala menonton video yang menunjukkan respon robot. Monyet tersebut tampak sangat gembira melihat si robot mengikuti gerakannya.
“Setiap kali dia (monyet-red) mengubah kecepatan atau pola gerakannya saat berjalan di treadmil, dia memperhatikan perubahan gerakan robot tersebut. Monyet tersebut sangat senang,” tutur Nicolelis, seperti dikutip detikINET dari Computerworld, Kamis (17/1/2008).
Percobaan pada manusia akan dimulai tak lama lagi. Nantinya elektroda dan chip komputer akan ditanamkan ke otak pasien. Elektroda akan mengirimkan informasi ke chip dan akan menyebarkan sinyal otak ke sebuah alat yang ditautkan pada tubuh pasien. Alat tersebut berupa serat karbon exoskeleton yang akan membungkus kaki, dan nantinya akan terhubung dengan aktivitas otak manusia.
Pada bulan Desember, seorang ahli telah sukses menghubungkan otak ngengat ke robot yang disebut-sebut akan menjadi cikal bakal komputer hybrid. ( dwn / dwn )
02
Aug
07
New Hopes After Comma
Man woken from virtual coma after six years
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 7:38pm BST 01/08/2007
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A man who spent six years unable to talk, eat or walk as a result of severe brain damage has made a remarkable recovery thanks to a revolutionary implant of electrodes deep in his brain.
The 38-year-old had been written off by one doctor as a vegetable but he is now able to talk, laugh, drink, chew and carry out simple tasks such as brushing his teeth. The man had been left in a “minimally conscious state” after being beaten up and robbed. He was unable to speak audibly and could only communicate by a nod, or tiny eye or finger movements. He was also unable to chew or swallow, and had to be fed through a tube. His eyes mostly remained shut. But after two electrodes delivered pulses of electricity to arouse his brain, he can now use words and gestures, respond reliably to requests, eat normally, drink from a cup, and carry out simple tasks such as brushing his hair, though his muscles have wasted and contracted so it is uncertain he will ever walk again. The American patient’s family has requested that he not be identified, but speaking today his mother said: “I prayed for a miracle The most important part is that he can say ‘Mummy and pop, I love you’. God bless those wonderful doctors. I still cry every time I see my son, but it is tears of joy.” She described him, the oldest of her three sons, as “an all around good kid” who loved to draw, collected comic books and worked with his father. Then one night in 1999, while walking home, “he was assaulted, he was robbed, he was beaten, he was kicked about in his head. His skull was completely crushed in and he was left for dead”. After emergency surgery, a doctor told her: “If your son pulls out of this, he will be a vegetable for the rest of his life.” Eventually, she gave a “do not resuscitate order” to doctors because the prospect of change seemed hopeless. Then in 2005, he had the chance to take part in the pioneering brain stimulation trial, the culmination of a decade’s work by a team at the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute-Centre for Head Injuries, New Jersey; the Cleveland Clinic; and Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City, led by Dr Nicholas Schiff. Today, he enjoys a quality of life his mother never thought possible. The breakthrough in artificial arousal will raise hopes that up to 300,000 such patients worldwide, including around 2,500 in Britain, who are written off as untreatable. Many could, in theory, be coaxed back to awareness in the wake of tomorrow’s report in Nature that could also shed light on consciousness. However, this research will stir guilt among doctors and anger from relatives about what one ethicist describes as “therapeutic nihilism”, where the medical establishment has, in effect, held up treatments by dismissing these cases as hopeless and abandoning them in nursing homes. Equally, the study will raise false hopes that all brain damaged patients could now be revived, when the possibilities depend on the extent of damage. The minimally conscious state is distinct from a persistent vegetative state or coma, in that patients do show intermittent signs of awareness and may fleetingly attempt simple words or signals. The new approach was developed when lead author Dr Schiff saw scanner studies that suggested language brain centres of patients were sometimes intact. In such patients, his team wanted to arouse the central thalamus, the gateway between the brain stem that controls involuntary functions such as breathing and the cortex, where conscious is thought to reside. They used deep brain stimulation, DBS, that, to date, has been used on around 40,000 patients worldwide in treating Parkinson’s, epilepsy, depression and other problems. The hope that one millimetre electrodes could “jump start” brain areas though they admit exact how it works remains mysterious. The electrodes, which are powered by a battery pack implanted in the chest, were moved in to position in the thalamus with millimetre precision in a 10-hour, two-stage operation by Prof Ali Rezai. They saw the striking results of activation, when the patient’s eyes opened and focussed on those around him. The implant was carried out in February 2005 and the brain continues to be stimulated by the electrodes. Now the patient can manage the first 16 words of the US Pledge of Allegiance, without being helped, and the team expects to see further improvement, notably after surgery to improve his ability to move. The team hopes to carry out the operation on a dozen patients in a preliminary trial. “If this achievement is replicated, its success could usher in a whole new era for the treatment of patients in MCS,” said co-author Dr Joseph Fins, Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College. “It will force us to take a second look at each case and — for appropriate patients — move away from the therapeutic nihilism that has so plagued this population, most of whom are ignored, receiving what is euphemistically described as ‘custodial care’.” Dr Adrian Owen of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, who has done pioneering work with scanners to show that patients in this state can respond to spoken commands, said: “This study is a real landmark; patients in the so-called minimally conscious state following traumatic brain injury who remain in that condition for more than a year are widely considered to be completely untreatable. “This study shows that may not be true in all cases. In the case reported here, deep brain stimulation promoted some late functional recovery years after the injury, allowing the patient to recover his ability to interact consistently with family members and even to play an active role in his own treatment. “This type of treatment is extremely complex, not suitable for all patients in MCS and only possible in a limited number of centres in the world so it will be a while before we see it used widely. However, this is a major first step.” The patient’s mother gave a message today to “all the mothers out there” with sons and daughters trapped in the same state: “Don’t give up – there is hope.” |
17
May
07
Asphalt Bacteria
Bizarre Asphalt Bacteria Found in Los Angeles
Environmental scientists at the University of California-Riverside have discovered that the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, Calif., house hundreds of new species of bacteria with unusual properties, allowing the bacteria to survive and grow in heavy oil and natural asphalt.
Trapped in soil that was mixed with heavy oil nearly 28,000 years ago, the bacteria are uniquely adapted to the pits’ oil and natural asphalt, and contain three previously undiscovered classes of enzymes that can naturally break down petroleum products, the researchers report.
“We were surprised to find these bacteria because asphalt is an extreme and hostile environment for life to survive,” said Jong-Shik Kim, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Environmental Sciences, who initiated the study. “It’s clear, however, that these living organisms can survive in heavy oil mixtures containing many highly toxic chemicals. Moreover, these bacteria survive with no water and little or no oxygen.”
The bacteria and their enzymes have potential application for bioremediation (cleaning oil spills), medical treatments (new medicines), alternative energy (biofuels), enhanced oil recovery, and industrial applications (biochemicals and biotechnology).
Study results appear online in the April 6 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Kim and his advisor, David E. Crowley, a professor of environmental microbiology, used DNA-based methods to identify the new bacteria as well as the DNA encoding the three classes of petroleum-degrading enzymes.
“Previously, some bacteria had been cultured from the asphalt, but no one had been able to extract DNA from the asphalt to study the entire microbial community,” said Kim, the first author of the paper.
Providing a natural observatory for the unusual bacteria, the Rancho La Brea tar pits, which formed in the last ice age, are located in Hancock Park, Los Angeles. Rancho La Brea, one of the world’s fossil localities, is recognized for having the largest and most diverse assemblage of extinct ice age plants and animals in the world.
“The living bacteria contained in the asphalt are most likely the progeny of soil microorganisms that were trapped in the asphalt, although some may also have been carried to the surface in the heavy oil that seeped upwards from deep underground oil reservoirs,” said Crowley, the research paper’s other author.
According to the researchers, most of the more than 200 species of microorganisms they identified represent entirely new branches in the tree of life, some being classified as new families of bacterial species.
While the bacteria remain to be grown in the laboratory, the researchers found that the closest relatives of many of the bacterial families are able to survive in high salt, toxic, and even radioactive environments.
“One family that was represented by many species is related to a group of bacteria that are the most radiation-resistant organisms on the planet,” Crowley said. “Indeed, this family of bacteria has been previously investigated by the Department of Energy for cleanup of hydrocarbon contamination in radioactive environments.”
It was the continual production of bubbles of methane gas that come up through heavy oil overlying the asphalts that clued the researchers to the presence of bacteria in the asphalt. “In the absence of oxygen, methane is produced by bacteria that use carbon dioxide for respiration instead of oxygen,” Crowley explained.
He noted that the bacteria are not uniformly distributed in the tar pits. While one reason for their presence could be bacteria rising through the soil via a subterranean oil flow, other explanations are possible. “Probably there has also been genetic exchange and natural selection of new species over the thousands of years the bacteria have been living in the asphalt,” Crowley said.
To identify the bacteria and their enzymes, Kim and Crowley analyzed the genetics of the bacteria extracted from the tar pits. To accomplish this, they first froze the tar with liquid nitrogen and then pulverized it into a powdery mixture using a mortar and pestle. This process allowed the researchers to extract DNA from bacteria in the asphalt, after which it could be purified by other more standard methods used for environmental samples.
Next in their research Kim and Crowley plan to perform a thorough, quantitative and qualitative assessment of the bacteria in the tar pits to identify genes that may have application for petroleum processing, oil recovery, and biotechnology.
11
Apr
07
Many dieters ‘finish up heavier’
Dieting is unlikely to lead to long-term weight loss and may put a person’s health at risk, a study says.
US researchers found people typically lose between 5% and 10% of their weight during the first six months of a diet.
But the review of 31 previous studies, by the University of California, said up to two-thirds put more weight on than they had lost within five years.
Repeatedly losing and gaining weight is linked to heart disease and stroke, the American Psychologist journal reported.
Lead researcher Traci Mann said: “We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more.
“Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.
“We concluded most of them would have been better off not going on the diet at all.
“Their weight would have been pretty much the same, and their bodies would not suffer the wear and tear of losing weight and gaining it all back.”
And she added some diet studies relied on participants to report their weight rather than having it measured by an impartial source while others had low follow-up rates which made their results unrepresentative.
Diets
She said this might make diets seem more effective than they really were as those who gained weight might be less likely to take part in the follow-ups.
In one study, 50% of dieters weighed more than 4.99kg (11lbs) over their starting weight five years after the diet.
The study did not name any diets in particular, but looked at a broad spectrum of approaches.
Professor Mann said in her opinion eating in moderation was a good idea for everybody as was regular exercise.
Dr Ian Campbell, medical director of Weight Concern, said too many people approached dieting as a short-term measure.
“Keeping weight off is a life-long challenge. It is just like heart disease or mental health problems, if you stop taking your medicine you can get worse.
“People who are overweight often don’t have a balanced lifestyle and after losing weight too many stop keeping active or eating healthily.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6540493.stm
College student creates paper-based storage system (no, not that kind)
24-year-old Sainul Abideen thinks he’s come up with an alternative to CDs and other data storage options that’ll allow for greater storage capacities and be cheaper and biodegradable to boot, using a fancy printing technique he’s devised to cram loads of data onto a plain old sheet of paper. The trick is to first convert the data into a so-called “Rainbow Format,” which is made up of various geometric shapes that can be densely printed onto a sheet of paper; that can then be read by a computer or other device using a Rainbow Card Reader. From the sound of it, the system appears to be somewhat similar to QR Codes and other newfangled bar code-type technologies currently in use in parts of the world other than here, but Abideen’s “Rainbow Versitile Disc” can apparently store far more amounts of data than those — between 90 and 450GB, according to The Arab News. Demonstrations of the technology, however, seem to have only shown much smaller amounts of data being Rainbowfied, including a 45 second video clip and 432 pages of “foolscrap” being stored on a four-inch square piece of paper. Still pretty darn impressive if you ask us, and it sure looks a heckuva lot better hanging on a wall than a CD.
[Via The Register]
15
Mar
07
HEROES
The Not-So Chosen One: Heroes saves viewers from lackluster TV season
Shaun Boutwell
Issue date: 3/15/07
Section: Entertainment
03/15/07 – As March signifies the end of winter sweeps, most faithful television viewers are now left with a couple weeks of reruns until their shows’ remaining episodes start airing in mid-April.
Luckily for me, a few of the shows I watch religiously, such as 24 and Battlestar Galactica (don’t laugh), are running their last arc of episodes without any of those frustrating breaks. Unfortunately, however, both series have been surprisingly lackluster or predictable as of late. I still have hope they will return to their former glory, but I digress.
After a three-month hiatus, Lost is airing without interruption, but even this show isn’t without its problems. Imagine a hot girl in college that constantly flirts with the entire male campus population but never puts out. That’s the equivalent of Lost; it takes so long to satisfy fans with answers that the show’s producers might as well scatter out the episodes inconsistently.
I’d have to say that personally, my two top choices for this year have been The Office and Heroes. I won’t focus on The Office today, simply because I was already a big fan of it prior to the show’s third season. For me, Heroes gets my vote for single-handedly reinvigorating this year’s drab television landscape.
I’ll have to admit, I had no strong desire to give this show a chance when I saw a handful of previews for it back in September. Being an avid comic book fan during my childhood, I scoffed at the premise of a television show about a group of superheroes.
“No way can they pull it off!” I thought. “What a blatant attempt to cash in on the success of the X-Men movie franchise and produce a sub-par rip-off!” (As a side note, X-Men: The Last Stand was complete and utter filth, besides Multiple Man).
So I virtually ignored the show until mid-February, when curiosity and boredom got the better of me and I gave the pilot episode a shot. Needless to say, all it took was 53 minutes for me to be hooked. In just three days, I burned through 15 episodes to get caught up, and have been watching it every week since.
For those unfamiliar with the show, maybe some of you are wondering: What’s the appeal? First off, anybody turned off by the idea of muscle-bound brutes named after savage animals (Wolverine or Sabretooth, anyone?) or that run around in brightly colored spandex need not worry. Heroes takes a more human approach to the storyline, examining each character as they discover their newfound powers, and more importantly, how they learn to use them.
Another great aspect of the show is the cast themselves, ranging from flying politician Nathan Petrilli (Adrian Pasdar) to cheerleader Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere), who can heal herself at an accelerated rate. Throw in the telepathic cop Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), teleporting time-traveler Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) and a whole bunch of others, and you’ve got yourself a diverse enough crew to comprise a superhuman United Nations.
Season one’s main plot revolves around our heroes trying to stop an inevitable nuclear explosion – in the form of Nathan’s younger brother, Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) – from destroying New York City. But it’s in watching how our lovable bunch reaches that ultimate destiny that makes the show so entertaining to watch.
Along the way, viewers are introduced to villains such as Sylar (Zachary Quinto), whose ability to take other heroes’ powers leads to deadly consequences for our do-gooders, and Mr. Bennet (Jack Coleman), a family man who works for a company in the business of experimenting on humans with special abilities and, in some cases, exploiting them.
Perhaps Heroes’ greatest asset is its ability to keep the show’s multiple storylines running at breakneck speed while frequently throwing twists and turns at the audience every few episodes. Heroes doesn’t keep its audience waiting in the dark; numerous bombshells have already been dropped, and the revelations continue to grow (Hey Lost, maybe you should take notes).
Granted, this is the show’s freshman year, and like many series before it, there’s always the possibility that Heroes could turn sour as it gets a bit older. But for now, I’m going to remain blissfully optimistic and hope that this is the beginning of something beautiful.
Speaking of beautiful, did I mention the show also features the gorgeous Ali Larter (of Final Destination fame) as a Webcam stripper? What other reason do you possibly need to watch?
Posted Dec 11, 2006, 5:32 PM ET
New type of memory chip developed by a team lead by IBM sould make flash memory a thing of the past.
A team of scientists from IBM, Macronix and Qimonda have unveiled a prototype computer memory with the potential to replace the flash memory chips now widely used in computers, digital cameras, portable music players and other consumer electronics.
This research gives credence to the concept of “phase-change” memory, which appears to be much faster and can be made much smaller than flash. The prototype phase-change memory device operated more than 500 times faster than flash while using less than one-half the power to write data into a cell. Plus, the device’s cross-section is only 3 by 20 nanometers, far smaller than flash can be built today and equivalent to the industry’s chip-making capabilities targeted for 2015.
Dr. T. C. Chen, Vice President, Science & Technology, IBM Research said that the results of the research dramatically demonstrate that phase-change memory has a very bright future. Chen further stated that “Many expect flash memory to encounter significant scaling limitations in the near future. Today we unveil a new phase-change memory material that has high performance even in an extremely small volume. This should ultimately lead to phase-change memories that will be very attractive for many applications.” This type of non-volatile flash memory does not need electrical power to retain it’s information.
source: gameshout
As they study Christianity, they find themselves ambassadors of Islam.
ROME — When Zeinep Ozbek told her parents how she planned to pursue her education, they were shocked.
Not only was the young Muslim woman about to leave her native Turkey, she was venturing into a strict traditional bastion of Christianity: Rome.
Ozbek, 25, is now one of several Muslim students ensconced in the Vatican’s system of higher learning in and around the Italian capital. They attend pontifical universities, schools sanctioned by the Vatican, taking lessons from nuns and priests and sitting in classrooms decorated with crucifixes, in buildings adorned with larger-than-life statues and symbols of papal power.
As Pope Benedict XVI travels to Turkey today, international attention is riveted on his attempts to improve troubled relations between Christians and Muslims. But here in Rome, at a more grass-roots level, a less-noticed experiment is taking place.
Officially, the Muslim students attend the Jesuit-run Gregorian Pontifical University and other Vatican schools to learn about Christianity. In reality, they have become mediators navigating the suddenly very tricky world of interfaith dialogue and understanding.
Some are meeting Christians for the first time, and they are often the first Muslims their Christian classmates have encountered. Several said they wanted to correct Western misconceptions about Islam.
Interfaith dialogue was a favorite theme of the late Pope John Paul II, who became the first pontiff to enter a mosque. Benedict asks for an honest interaction that might ultimately lay bare mistrust and chafe historic sensitivities.
His speech in September at the University of Regensburg in Germany was seen by many Muslims as an insult to their faith and its founder, the prophet Muhammad. In it, Benedict quoted a medieval emperor who branded Islam “evil and inhuman.”
Ever since, in the face of Muslim anger, the pope has sought to explain that he was attempting to illustrate the incompatibility of faith and violence and that he has profound respect for Islam. In Turkey, crowds have been protesting the planned four-day visit.
The Regensburg comments also proved problematic for Muslim students in Rome, and raised questions about the pope’s commitment to interfaith dialogue.
“All the trouble of the recent months has been pushing people to think carefully about where dialogue is headed, and to realize how much more urgent it is,” said Father Daniel Madigan, head of the Gregorian’s Institute for the Study of Religions and Cultures, where most of the Muslim students are based.
The program at the Gregorian is facing some uncertainty because Madigan, a leading expert on Islam and interfaith relations at a time the Vatican needs such insight, is leaving Rome for a position at Jesuit-run Georgetown University in Washington.
Ozbek, the Turkish woman working on a master’s degree, had never met a Christian before she came to Rome. The Christian communities in Turkey are tiny and generally linked to ethnic groups such as Greeks or Armenians that Ozbek did not find particularly embracing.
Some of her friends and relatives were afraid her immersion in a Catholic world would cause her to lose her identity. But that is a fear of those insecure in their faith, she said; for her, learning about the “richness” of Christianity only expanded her own devotion and helped her see “the other” as a fellow human being.
“Generally I’m the first Muslim person they have met and they ask lots of questions,” she said.
Ozbek wears a head scarf. An irony of her experience here is that most Turkish universities, obeying a strictly enforced government policy of secularism, would not let her attend class with her head covered.
Naser Dumarreh, 34, of Damascus, Syria, said the pious Catholic milieu that Rome provided was more comfortable than a secular Western environment.
“I’m living in a Christian society, not a Western society, and there’s not such a big difference from an Islamic society,” said Dumarreh, one of the first Middle Easterners to join the program.
The students said they felt a fair amount of pressure as representatives of Islam.
“They expect me to know everything about Islam, to be able to quote all the verses of the Koran by heart,” said Mustafa Cenap Aydin, 28, a Turk who has been studying in Rome for three years. But he says there is a mutual learning curve. Until arriving at the Gregorian, he did not know of the many positive references to Christianity contained in the Koran.
“I’m not the same Mustafa who came here,” he said.
Several of the students said understanding Christianity had broadened their understanding of Islam, a later religion that incorporates some of the earlier Christian and Judaic traditions.
“To study in Rome on Christianity means to me to discover the historical, literary and theological background of the Koran,” said Esra Gozeler, who is working here on her PhD and teaches theology at the University of Ankara in Turkey.
Omar Sillah, a 30-year-old student from Gambia who is specializing in the three monotheistic religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism), has seen the traditions of his Muslim faith reflected in Catholicism. He knew Christians before coming to Rome; in fact, he studied at a missionary school in Gambia. But Rome was an eye-opener.
After the pope’s Regensburg speech, Sillah said, he was bombarded with e-mails and questions from fellow students. He told them that a religion of violence and evil “is not the Islam that I follow.”
His goal, he said, is to show Christians in Rome “by our actions” a different kind of Islam.
But he doesn’t mind the endless queries. “That’s our goal — that’s dialogue,” he said.
* wilkinson@latimes.com
latimes
