mencari mas GM

Rasanya, masa depan saya adalah menjadi tukang coret. Tidak puas rasanya, ketika GK masih saya buka dan saya coret-coret isinya. Atau hanya sebuah ekspresi ketika seorang teman, ia dosen dan pernah menjadi penyiar di salah satu radio swasta bilang, masa bukumu cuma 20 halaman? Jika mau bikin buku beneran, selesaikan hingga 150 halaman. Dimanakah kau taro Gunawan Mohammad? Ato masih ingatkah anda dengan Ayu Utami?

Saya letakkan Mas GM dalam kepala dan hati saya. Sebab saya tak ingin mengusik Catatan Pinggir-nya di Majalah TEMPO atau merubahnya menjadi Mohammad Sobari. Mengapa? Sebab GM tak sama dengan MS. Jika anda kurang jeli, ati2 dengan GM, anda malah bisa masuk ke jalan palmerah. Kenalkah kalian dengan Pak MS? Coba cek beliau di database ANTARA dan minta sekretaris disana untuk kembali membuka Ms. word-nya.. Hati-hati ... untuk buka Ms. Word, kita harus punya komputer dulu... laptop juga tak mengapa. Namun jangan HP ya, soalnya bunyinya bisa jadi begini : ringing tone by NOKIA.

BURAM

agak buram ketika Kinanthi dilanjutkan kembali ...
bagaimana tidak, TASARO masih saja dan selalu suka memilih nama-nama zodiac ; Virgo, Cancer, dan Leo dalam GK-nya. Agak kaget saya ketika TASARO menerjemahkan virgo dan dengan sang perawan, cancer = kepiting dan Leo alias singa. Berjalan sedikit, ada ARA, bagian yang menjadi isi GK-nya TASARO, sebelum Kinanthi-Ajuj dituntaskannya.

Percaya atau tidak, saya menggunakan ARA juga dalam "Jejak Ash", yang pasti tidak setebal GK. Jika TASARO mengatakan ARA sebagai altar, bolehkah saya katakan pada TASARO bahwa saya senang menggunakan kata itu untuk nama sebuah pohon.
Yaps ... pohon ARA!

Baca NAON?

Anda baca apa?

GALAKSI KINANTI. Galaksi baru dalam tata surya setelah bimasakti dan andromeda. rame ato tidak? Entahlah, yang jelas ...saya tidak melihat kemacetan dalam GK atau ngadatnya TASARO, saya hanya melihat tanda-tanda baca, huruf-huruf yang tertulis tegak dan miring ... selanjutnya, maaf TAS, gua memberikan tanda merah. Agaknya ini kebiasaan kurang enak buat anak-anak. Membaca sambil memegang pensil atau pena. pada halaman 197, saya memberikan lingkaran untuk sebuah percakapan.

"Atas nama negara AMERIKA, kami putuskan Kinanthi diberi hak untuk bersekolah dengan biaya negara, pekerjaan dengan gaji minimum, mendapat tempat tinggal, diberi jaminan pelayanan kesehatan seumur hidup dan Kebebasan untuk menjalankan ibadah sesuai agamanya."

namun ups, mengapa K pada kebebasan ditulis dengan huruf besar? Luput atau sebuah kesengajaan? Lagi-lagi saya melingkarinya dengan pensil merah. Mungkinkah FREEDOM dilekatkan disana? Jika tidak, tak mengapa, gak usah dipaksa.

NO AIR ... NO AIR

Perjalanan Bandung-Jakarta dapat ditempuh dengan beberapa cara ; darat dan udara. Belum ada ferry sebab Bandung masih setia menjadi kota kembang yang selalu setia berada sekian km di atas permukaan laut.

Udara, ya naik pesawat (masa naik Garuda). Bukan apa-apa emang GARUDA tidak mengoperasikan maskapai penerbangannya ke Bandung. Bandara Hussen hanya terima AIR ASIA, Merpati, dan kalo tidak melesat MANDALA.

"Kenapa pahanya, Mbak?"
Seorang gadis manis duduk di sebelah saya ketika cipaganti travel menemani perjalanan kami dari Bandung-Bogor.
"Abis rafting."
"Tak kirain surfing. Kalo surfing, di warnet aja, Mbakyu."
"Grand Canyon"
"Bukan Green Palace?"
"Coba oleskan pala atau aloe vera. Mungkin bisa sedikit redakan nyeri dan dinginkan luka."
"Ya, saya mau ke Lapangan Tembak."
"Kalau ibu?"
"Menuju kawasan padat property di pinggiran jalan TOL."
"Sampai kapan?"
"Abis lebaran"

Lanjutkan Kinanti

Masih saja saya tidak ingin menghabiskan GK. Bukan apa-apa, saya sangat sadar bahwa GK bukanlah tahu sumedang ato pisang goreng kipas yang enak sekali disantap hangat-hangat. GK tetaplah buku yang harus dibeli pake uang atau ditukar dengan sekeping dirham atau khamsa. Untuk itu pula, kita harus bekerja, memeras baju, memerah sapi agar mau mengeluarkan susu atau membajak sawah.

Buku ini cukup enak dibaca, jika anda menyebutnya sebagai novel. Proses kreatif itu tidak gampang karena saya sangat yakin bahwa tasaro, ayah dari Sena ini cukup memeras otak untuk dapat menuntaskan novel tebal ini. Lelah ya, Tas (baca : tasaro bukan tas gantung)...

Agaknya Tasaro cukup mengenal Mas Emha, sang Kyai Kanjeng dengan baik. Terselip kata Gusti Pangeran di salah satu lembar GK. Kata itu yang juga terdengar dari suara Mas Emha di Tombo Ati. Saya juga memberikan tanda merah untuk persepsi kaya yang ingin disampaikan oleh GK.
"Kamu kan, anak orang kaya, Juj. Bapakmu banyak uang. Kalau aku memang ndak tahu mau nerusin atau tidak. Sepertinya tidak."

Apa itu kaya? Sekarang kita bicara tentang definisi atau sebuah persepsi? Mari kita buka dan otak-atik kesadaran kita. Kaya apakah yang ingin kita raih? Kaya apakah yang dimaksud?

Tentu bukan kaya monyet, itu seperti (mungkin) maksudnya. Kaya hati .... selanjutnya kaya online. Untuk yang terakhir, saya melihat Samuel Indrajaya menuliskannya menjadi judul buku yang diterbitkan oleh Elex.

Dengan sangat rapi dan detail, tasaro bercerita tentang kaya apa yang ada dalam kepala Kinanti dan Ajuj hingga Zhaxi ... dari pinggiran New York... tasaro ingin mengajak saya melanjutkan Kinanti ... dimanakah tasaro???

Best of GK : Membaca TASARO

Jika Yogi Pasha, wartawan Harian Seputar Indonesia menyebut bahwa Galaksi Kinanthi memang diniatkan menjadi buku best seller sekaligus calon penerima penghargaan bergengsi, maka saya mengatakan bahwa ini adalah Best of Gunung Kidul (bukan Tasaro GK). Mengapa?
Buku yang diterbitkan oleh Salamadani pada 2009 ini dengan Tasaro sebagai pemegang hak cipta menyelipkan sedikit pesan indahnya pesona pantai Gunung Kidul di lembaran akhir bukunya. Cara yang cukup baik untuk menyampaikan pesan bahwa Gunung Kidul bukanlah daerah yang tandus dan tak memiliki masa depan. Jika saja ini hendak digarap, Gunung Kidul sungguh benar menjadi tempat yang baik bagi dahsyatnya Galaksi Kinanti.
Tasaro, dibesarkan dalam tradisi Katolik, ia pernah menceritakan hal itu pada obrolan ringan di suatu sore pada saya. Sehingga ketika membaca lembar terakhir GK, saya mengira bahwa Tasaro menyampaikan pesan bahwa Paus Paulus Yohannes yang datang ke Gunung Kidul. Ternyata .... ikan paus dari benua lain. Entahlah, apakah Tasaro melihat benar ikan paus ini atau tidak. Hanya yang jelas, saya lebih senang jika di bagian cover Galaksi Kinanthi, Salamadani menuliskan begini : tasaro GK, best of Gunung Kidul, bukan best writer. Ini sih, kata saya. Sebab selanjutnya saya ingin menyampaikan tahniah atas terbitnya novel Tasaro yang kedua : Muhammad, Sang Penggenggam Hujan.... kalo tidak salah, begitukah judulnya, Tas?

Saya senang Tasaro bercerita tentang Jawa sebab ia memang Jawa. Sangat mengalir, dia gambarkan itu ... Jawa dalam bahasa dan Jawa sebagai sebuah daerah. Tasaro tidak bercerita tentang kejawen, namun Galaksi Kinanthi memberikan gambaran apakah itu kejawen dalam budaya Jawa.

tasaro, jika saja surga ada di dunia, maka GK adalah surga buat Jawa. Aku tuh lebih tua darimu, tas .. jadi ya mbok ya sopan sedikit, napa?
Maksud gua begini, siapakah Kinanthi itu sebenarnya? Seorang editor buku anak-anak atau benar seorang penulis cantik dari pinggiran New York? So, jangan main-main dengan gua ya?

Sebagai seorang alumnus communications, GK-nya TASARO memang banyak menyelipkan pesan-pesan komunikasi. C5 : content, context, creativity, community, dan costumer, bukan hanya hadir dalam bentuk buku terbitan Salamadani namun juga menjadi bagian dari isi Galaksi Kinanthi.

Latar belakang Tasaro di bidang penerbitan, juga menjadi separuh nafas buku ini. Adowwww, kayak Dewa Budjana aja. Tapi, syukur, Tasaro gak jadi bujangan lapuk. Kasian atuh, tasaro, lapuk kena panas dan hujan. Selanjutnya, biarkan ... saya kembali meneruskan bacaan GK, belum tamat aja ....

Membaca Arsalan dalam TheMuslim Guy

Beberapa kali saya membaca tulisan Arsalan yang dikirimkannya ke email saya. Ya, saya memang mendaftar berlangganan newsletternya. Saya mengenal Arsalan dalam pestablogger 2009 dimana saya mengikuti acara itu, awal hingga akhir. Arsalan, melakukan online chatting dengan kita2 yang kebagian sesi bridging the gap. Ia menggunakan skype saat itu, kalo tidak salah dan menyampaikan satu hal : NETWORK. Saya tidak terlalu jelas soal itu, hanya chatting memang agak terganggu. Ada apakah dengan network, Arsalan?

Maafkan saya Arsalan, jika harus menggunakan tools untuk bisa menangkap tulisannya, coz i'm not american. I'm a woman, live on the earth and still can breath until now., alhamdulillah.

Jika Arsalan bilang tentang Osama dalam salah satu tulisannya, bolehkah saya berbagi sedikit tentang Kenny G ... saya menyimpan rekamannya instrumentalia-nya tapi gak tau dimana ia menyimpan saxophone-nya ...

Met lebaran, Arsalan ... Happy SYAWAL AND IED MUBARAK!

Arsalan, Lebaran Gak?

Arsalan, lo napa sih kirim2 gue e-mail aja, capek gua buka2 kamus ... tau ... gak ada kerjaan ya? iye ... gue terjemahin tulisan lo ... kan gua udah bilang ye, kalo gua pengen keluar negeri, kenapa juga lo meminta gua terus disini? cuapekkk gue, bosen ... bete ...

To experience what it feels like to be a Muslim in America today, walk in the shoes of Dr. Mansoor Mirza of Sheboygan County , Wisconsin . It's a February evening, and you're at a meeting of the planning commission of Wilson (pop. 3,200), which is considering your application to open a mosque in the nearby village of Oostburg . You're not expecting much opposition: you already own the property, and having worked in the nearby Manitowoc hospital for the past five years, you're hardly a stranger to the town. Indeed, some of the people at the meetings are like most of your patients — white Americans who don't seem to care about their doctors' race or creed when they talk to them about their illnesses.

But when the floor is opened to discussion, you hear things they would never say to you even in the privacy of an examination room. One after another, they pour scorn and hostility on your proposal, and most of the objections have nothing to do with zoning regulations. It's about your faith. Islam is a religion of hate, they say. Muslims are out to wipe out Christianity. There are 20 jihadi training camps hidden across rural America , busy even now producing the next wave of terrorists. Muslims murder their children. Christian kids have enough problems with drugs, alcohol and pornography and should not have to worry about Islam too. "I don't want it in my backyard," says one. Another says, "I just think it's not America ." (See TIME's photo-essay "Muslim in America.")

Looking back, Mirza recalls that a couple of speakers tried to steer the conversation into calmer territory. "I don't think that we should be making broad, sweeping generalizations," said one, according to minutes of the meeting obtained by TIME. But such words barely gave pause to the blunt expressions of suspicion and hostility toward Islam and Muslims. When it came Mirza's turn to speak, his shock and hurt were palpable. "If we are praying there, we don't stink. We don't make noise. We just come, pray and leave," he said. He kept calm when a commissioner asked if there would be any weapons or military training at the mosque. But afterward, Pakistani-born Mirza, 38, was shaken. "I never expected that the same people who came to me at the hospital and treated me with respect would talk to me like this." His lawyer had to take him to a nearby café to help him calm down.

Some of Mirza's roughly 100 fellow Muslims in Sheboygan County would say he was naive. The majority are Bosnians and Albanians who fled to the U.S. to escape persecution by Serbs after the collapse of Yugoslavia . Scarred by their experiences back home, some chose to keep their faith under wraps. They feared that plans to build a mosque would draw too much attention to their community. They were not entirely wrong. After the meeting, pastors in Oostburg began a campaign against the project. "The political objective of Islam is to dominate the world with its teachings ... and to have domination of all other religions militarily," said the Rev. Wayne DeVrou, a pastor at the First Reformed Church in Oostburg.

The battle in Wilson received little national attention until this month, when a much larger and noisier uproar erupted in New York City over plans to build a Muslim cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. Park51, as the project is called, is the brainchild of Imam Feisal Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan, American Muslims well known for promoting interfaith dialogue. Their plan has been approved by city authorities and has the backing of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but it has ignited a nationwide firestorm of protest.

Some opponents are genuinely concerned that an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero would offend the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attack on the World Trade Center . Paul Walier, a Buffalo , N.Y. , lawyer whose sister Margaret died in the towers, acknowledges that Rauf and Khan are within their constitutional rights but adds, "I just don't think it's the appropriate thing to do." You don't have to be prejudiced against Islam to believe, as many Americans do, that the area around Ground Zero is sacred. But sadly, in an election season, such sentiments have been stoked into a volatile political issue by Republican leaders like Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin. As the debate has grown more heated, the project has become a litmus test for everything from private-property rights to religious tolerance. But as in Wisconsin , some of Park51's opponents are motivated by a troubling Islamophobia.

Islam Meets America
The proposed site of Park51 is close not just to Ground Zero; it's also a stone's throw from strip clubs, liquor stores and other establishments typical of lower Manhattan . Local Muslims have been praying in the building for nearly a year, a fact that has been lost in the noise of the anti-mosque protests. But since early August, the site has been the scene of frequent demonstrations in which protesters carry signs saying such things as "All I Need to Know About Islam, I Learned on 9/11." Like Mirza, Rauf and Khan seem stunned into paralysis. While opponents have cast them as extremists sympathetic to al-Qaeda, they themselves have given very few interviews. Rauf has been abroad for much of the time, but pressure is mounting on the couple to move their center to a less polarizing location.

The controversy, meanwhile, has brought new scrutiny to other examples of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim protests across the country, raising larger questions: Does the U.S. have a problem with Islam? Have the terrorist attacks of 9/11 — and the other attempts since — permanently excluded Muslims from full assimilation into American life?

Muslims and Mosques in the West
Muslim Americans need no convincing. The Park51 uproar, says Ebrahim Moosa, an associate professor of Islamic studies at Duke University , "is part of a pattern of intolerance" against Muslims that has existed since 9/11 but has deepened in the past few years. Although the American strain of Islamophobia lacks some of the traditional elements of religious persecution — there's no sign that violence against Muslims is on the rise, for instance — there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that hate speech against Muslims and Islam is growing both more widespread and more heated. "Islamophobia has become the accepted form of racism in America," says Muslim-American writer and commentator Arsalan Iftikhar. "You can always take a potshot at Muslims or Arabs and get away with it."

(See a video about young Muslims praying for understanding.)

There's reason to think that the sentiments expressed in lower Manhattan and in Sheboygan County are not isolated. A new TIME — Abt SRBI poll found that 46% of Americans believe Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence against nonbelievers. Only 37% know a Muslim American. Overall, 61% oppose the Park51 project, while just 26% are in favor of it. Just 23% say it would be a symbol of religious tolerance, while 44% say it would be an insult to those who died on 9/11.

Islamophobia in the U.S. doesn't approach levels seen in other countries where Muslims are a minority: there's no American equivalent of France 's ban on the burqa or Switzerland 's new law against building minarets. Polls have shown that most Muslims feel safer and freer in the U.S. than anywhere else in the Western world. Two American Muslims have been elected to Congress, and this year, Rima Fakih became the first Muslim to be named Miss USA . Next month, the country's first Muslim college will formally open its doors in Berkeley , Calif. Zaytuna College 's motto: "Where Islam Meets America ." (Watch TIME's video "A Muslim Miss USA: Bikinis and Bombshells.")

But where ordinary Americans meet Islam, there is evidence that suspicion and hostility are growing. To be a Muslim in America now is to endure slings and arrows against your faith — not just in the schoolyard and the office but also outside your place of worship and in the public square, where some of the country's most powerful mainstream religious and political leaders unthinkingly (or worse, deliberately) conflate Islam with terrorism and savagery. In France and Britain, politicians from fringe parties say appalling things about Muslims, but there's no-one in Europe with the stature of a former House Speaker who seemed to equate Islam with Nazism, as Gingrich did recently. "The core argument emerging from [the anti-mosque protests] is that Muslims are not and can never be full Americans," says Eboo Patel, an American Muslim on Obama's advisory council on faith-based and neighborhood partnerships.

It makes sense that the most heated encounters take place over mosques. Since America 's Muslim population tends to be much more diffusely scattered than Europe's (with the exception of concentrations in cities like Dearborn , Mich. ), places of worship are often the most tangible targets for hatred. And there are suddenly many more of them than before. According to Ihsan Bagby, an Islamic-studies professor at the University of Kentucky , there are now 1,900 mosques in the U.S. , up from about 1,200 in 2001. Many of these are little more than makeshift prayer rooms in shops and offices; when Muslim groups set out to build formal mosques, they become more exposed and vulnerable. (See the top 10 religion stories of 2009.)

This year, at least six mosque projects across the U.S. have faced bitter opposition. In Temecula, Calif. , a group in July brought dogs to a protest where Muslims were praying, knowing full well that the animals are regarded as unclean in Islam. And the rage against Muslims is by no means limited to proposed mosques. In Gainesville , Fla. , a pastor has announced plans to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, arguing that Jesus would burn the Koran because "it's not holy." Groups calling themselves the Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop the Islamization of America have sponsored advertisements offering Muslims a "safe" way to give up Islam — the sort of exhortation directed at Jews and Roman Catholics in generations past.

But perhaps the most vicious attacks take place online, where extreme bigotry can easily metastasize. Bloggers like Pamela Geller, a New Yorker who runs the website Atlas Shrugs, played a pivotal role in making Park51 a national issue even after mainstream conservative commentators had given it a thumbs-up. In December, Laura Ingraham, sitting in for Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, interviewed Daisy Khan and ended the segment by telling her, "I like what you're trying to do." Geller, however, mounted a concerted campaign against the center. "This is Islamic domination and expansionism," she wrote. "The location is no accident — just as al-Aqsa was built on top of the Temple in Jerusalem ." Eventually other bloggers picked up the thread, and the campaign went viral.

Abandoned by Friends
The arguments marshaled by Islam's detractors have become familiar: Since most terrorist attacks are conducted by Muslims and in the name of their faith, Islam must be a violent creed. Passages of the Koran taken out of context are brandished as evidence that Islam requires believers to kill or convert all others. Shari'a laws requiring the stoning of adulterers or other gruesome punishments serve as proof that Muslims are savage and backward. The conclusion of this line of reasoning is that Islam is a death cult, not a real religion, so constitutional freedoms don't apply to it. Religious intolerance is not limited to Islam, of course: Jews, Mormons and others still experience hate speech. But the most toxic bile is reserved for Muslims. Franklin Graham, son of Evangelical giant Billy Graham, tells TIME that Islam is "a religion of hatred. It's a religion of war." Park51 should not be allowed, he says, because Muslim worshippers will be able to walk there, and "the entire area they walk by foot they claim as Islamic territory. They will claim now that the World Trade Center property ... is Islamic land."

Those railing against new mosques also use arguments of equivalence: Saudi Arabia doesn't allow churches and synagogues, so why should the U.S. permit the building of Islamic places of worship? Never mind that the U.S. is not, like Saudi Arabia , a country with a state religion, or that America was founded on ideals of religious freedom and tolerance. (See people finding God on YouTube.)

It's worth noting that wherever opposition has been nakedly anti-Islamic, it has been denounced by many Christian, Jewish and secular groups. Muslims are by no means friendless. But in recent weeks, they have felt abandoned by people they would have expected to be their staunchest allies. Prominent Democrats either have been notably silent on the Park51 controversy or, like Senator Harry Reid recently, have sided with those who think the center should be moved someplace else. Even André Carson, a Democratic Congressman from Indiana and one of two Muslims in the House, skirted questions on the location of the project, telling TIME, "That's certainly a question my friends in New York will have to hash out." (See "Why the GOP Should Avoid the Mosque Issue.")

Over the weekend, Muslim hopes were first raised, then dashed, by President Obama. On Friday, Aug. 13, hosting a dinner for Muslim leaders at the White House, he eloquently defended the community's constitutional right to practice its faith — and by inference, to build their mosques where legally permitted. But the very next day, Obama added a rider: he was not, he clarified, commenting on the "wisdom of making the decision to put the mosque there." A White House official explains the Saturday restatement by saying, "There's a reason the President rarely makes the tactical decision to speak" with reporters in impromptu media gaggles.

Even from the distance and relative safety of Dearborn , Muslims expressed alarm at the explosion of bile over Park51. A heated discussion broke out among customers at a bakery on Aug. 11, the start of the fasting month of Ramadan. Some argued that the Park51 project should be scrapped, lest it inflame anti-Muslim sentiment; others said backing down would be a mistake. "If they don't build it, they will be agreeing with those who say Muslims are not proper Americans," said Sami, a recent Iraqi immigrant who would give only his first name. "If that's the case, I might as well go back to Baghdad , because I will never be accepted here."

In Dearborn and elsewhere, many American Muslims are especially distressed by the demonization of Rauf, one of the country's foremost practitioners of Sufism, a mystical form of Islam reviled by extremists like Osama bin Laden. "It demonstrates that this is not about distinguishing good from bad, extreme from moderate," says Saeed Khan, who lectures on ethnic-identity politics and the Muslim diaspora at Wayne State University in Detroit . "Muslims are being subjected to a broader brush as a community." In reality, the U.S. has probably the most diverse Muslim population of any country: American Muslims represent practically every race and sect, even those regarded by many Islamic states as heretical.

Why has Islamophobia suddenly intensified? Some Muslim Americans argue it hasn't: these sentiments have existed for years. Others say there have been peaks and troughs since 9/11. Muslim-American commentator Iftikhar recalls the "first wave" of anti-Muslim outbursts after the terrorist attacks, when leading Christian figures like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell openly questioned whether Islam was a religion at all and labeled the Prophet Muhammad a robber, brigand and terrorist. Political leaders were hardly more circumspect. Saxby Chambliss, then a Representative from Georgia (now a Senator), said his state should "arrest every Muslim that comes across the state line," though he later apologized for the remark.

The venom was diluted by President George W. Bush. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, Bush visited an Islamic center in Washington and declared that there would be no reprisals against Muslims. Islam, he said, was a religion of peace. The message was reinforced by top Administration officials like Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell. While Bush's credibility with American Muslims would eventually be blighted by the war in Iraq and the attendant death of tens of thousands of Muslims there, some commentators give him credit for reining in Islamophobes. Patel says, "Bush was very strong [in defending Islam] on the domestic front." Like Obama after him, Bush repeatedly drew sharp distinctions between the extremist, violent interpretation of Islam by followers of bin Laden and its peaceful majority. (Bush has declined requests, including from TIME, to comment on Park51.) But by the tail end of his Administration, some Republican groups were already breaking away from the White House line. One unexpected watershed moment was the 2007 release of the Pew Research Center report Muslim Americans, still the most comprehensive survey of the community, which estimated the Muslim-American population at 2.35 million. It was the first definitive number and was much smaller than previous estimates, which ranged from 6 million to 8 million. One consequence of the reduced estimate, says Wayne State 's Khan, was that it made the community much more vulnerable to political attack. "It put the metaphorical chum in the water," he says. "It signaled to people that Muslims were a very small group and didn't need to be taken seriously." (Read "TIME Poll: Majority Oppose Mosque, Many Distrust Muslims.")

Then came the attempt to portray Obama as a closet Muslim during the 2008 presidential campaign, which brought anti-Islamic rhetoric onto the political stage, marking a break from the Bush years. (Remarkably, according to TIME's poll, nearly a quarter of Americans still think Obama is a Muslim.) Since becoming President, Obama has made it a priority to improve the country's image in the eyes of the Islamic world.

His outreach to American Muslims has been much quieter. Unlike Bush, Obama has not yet visited a mosque in the U.S. Attitudes toward Islam have worsened perceptibly in the past two years, perhaps because of a string of terrorism-related incidents involving American Muslims like the accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan and the would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. Sami, the Iraqi immigrant in Dearborn , says he noticed a change in his neighbors' attitude after the Times Square incident. "Two days later, I was loading some bags in my car, and one guy comes over and looks over my shoulder," he recalls. "I saw the look in his eyes, and I knew what he was thinking."

The concern now is that the mosque protests and the attention they have drawn from politicians may have brought Islamophobia firmly into the mainstream. "It may have become a permanent political wedge issue," says Iftikhar. So far, the Muslim-American community's response has gone little beyond hand-wringing. It has historically had trouble presenting a united front: divisions abound along both racial and linguistic lines, and the community has no obvious leaders.

In the meantime, some worry that growing resentment against Islam will discourage Muslims, especially young ones, from assimilating into the wider society. "When you have a leading politician equating Islam to Nazism, you can imagine that a 17-year-old Muslim in Virginia is thinking, Oh, my God, these people are totally against my religion," says Duke's Moosa.

For Iftikhar, the community's best chance now is to appeal to Americans' sense of justice and fair play. And such appeals can work. In Wilson , the town's executive council eventually ruled in Mirza's favor, and the Islamic Society of Sheboygan has converted a building on his property into a mosque. The Muslim community has already elected an imam, Mohammed Hamad. But it took a tragedy to bring Muslims and non-Muslims closer together. In June, Sofia Khan, a Muslim girl from Chicago , disappeared in Lake Michigan near Oostburg while on vacation with her family. Rita Harmeling, a local woman from a church that had opposed the mosque, called the imam and asked him to minister to the grieving Khan family. Later Harmeling helped volunteers and rescue workers who tried to find the girl. Soon, other residents opened their homes to the Khans. A neighbor of the mosque offered the use of his front yard for the girl's family to gather.

In Sheboygan County , the good old-fashioned American sense of community came through for Mirza, Hamad and the Khans. But when it comes to Muslims and Islam , America 's better angels are not always so accommodating.

Honey, Drink Honey Ya coz Honey is Well

Ini manfaat madu, tips bagus ... sepanjang hidup, kelangsungan badan, permanen ...! Bukan dimadu apalagi diracun, itu gak bagus yak??? kalo madu dan racun? tanyain Gomblo dech...
1. Pisang dicampur dengan madu merupakan makanan yang baik buat bayi
2. Pisang dilumatkan dicampur segelas air kelapa muda dan sesendok madu kemudian disaring air hasil saringan berkhasiat bagi penderita campak dan TBC
3. Beberapa tetes sari buah pepaya dicampur madu, berkhasiat memperlancar ASI
4. Pepaya dicampur susu dan madu berkhasiat untuk mengatasi gangguan saluran air seni, berbagai gangguan jantung, otak, hati, urat, syaraf, wasir, sembelit
5. Pepaya dicampur susu dan madu merupakan tonik yang baik untuk ibu hamil dan menyusui
6. Jeruk peras ditambah madu dapat membantu mengatasi gangguan jantung
7. Air kelapa dicampur sedikit madu merupakan tonikum yang murah dan merangsang pusat-pusat seksual tubuh

bagaimana notulen dituliskan

dari bedah buku "Hak Asasi Manusia dalam Masyarakat Komunal" karya Marianus Kleden (MK), di serambi GPU, Matraman Jakarta 2009.

Buku yang ditulis MK untuk program pasca studi Ilmu-ilmu sosial di Unair, dimana ia lulus dengan predikat cumlaude dan menjadi wisudawan terbaik untuk kelompok ilmu-ilmu sosial (2007) adalah cetakan kedua yang diterbitkan oleh Penerbit Lamalera dan Komnas HAM. Buku ini penting untuk diterbitkan karena masih miskinnya wacana dan kajian antropologi tentang HAM dalam perspektif masyarakat adat di tingkat nasional. Buku ini memiliki kelebihan yaitu karya yang (1)genuine ; real, true, actual, contextual, original (studi pertama antropologi politik yang meneliti tentang HAM dalam perspektif masyarakat adat, (2) accurate ; akurasinya cukup tinggi dengan adanya penelitian terhadap tatanan hukum internasional sampai ke hukum adat,(3) esensial, (4) good (5) prooved, apa yang terjadi di Lamaholot itu terbukti benar (6) tested, ini merupakan bagian dari tesis.

Kekurangan buku ;
1. kesalahan cetak
2. kesalahan penulisan akronim
3. kesalahan penggunaan kata hubung
4. tidak ditemukannya waktu pelaksanaan penelitian walau buku ini sidah dicetak dua kali.

children

my babies ... mom miss all of u
for laugh, fun and cry
when mom open again ur hands craft in book
everything become wonderful
mom type a book for u, hope u can build communication each other
although i don't always beside all of u
but, don't forget, keep mom's pic in your cupboard ya..
coz, mom always remember u, how about ur daily, ur school, ur friends
take care, dearest ... mom love u ...