text:
Sufi Brotherhoods in Syria and Israel –
A Contemporary Overview*
Itzchak Weismann – University of Haifa
In the geographical area of Syria, as in other parts of the Muslim world, Sufism found itself during the twentieth century under increasing attack. Though accustomed to strictures against their theosophical meditations and popular-ecstatic practices, with the advent of modernity Sufis had to contend with challenges of an altogether different magnitude. These derived not only from the direct impact of the West with its rationalist mode of thinking, but, even more so, from the growing intervention of a secularized State and the concomitant antagonism of a rising Islamic fundamentalism. Under such circumstances, many Sufi brotherhoods declined; yet others were able to develop a variety of strategies from within their divergent traditions to survive, adapt, and at times even thrive. Since the 1980s, with the turn of Muslim governments against the radical upsurge, and the general rise of interest in "Oriental" mysticism in the West, there has been a marked revival in Sufi activities. [1]
This paper focuses on the current manifestations of Sufism and Sufi brotherhoods in the states of Syria and Israel, with occasional references to Lebanon and Jordan. Although subjected to increasingly differentiated socioeconomic and political processes since the later part of the Ottoman period, Sufis in three of the four countries share in a basic situation of living under non-Sunni governments. In Syria, the sectarian-based authoritarian Ba'th regime, in power since 1963, has been generally hostile toward independent Sufi activity, the more so during the Islamic uprising that culminated in Hamah in 1982. The same regime imposed itself on the Christian-Maronite-dominated political system in Lebanon following the outbreak of civil war in 1976. In the Jewish State of Israel such activity had been almost eliminated by the disruption of the War in 1948, but partly revived after the renewal of contacts with the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in the wake of the 1967 War. Rather than an exhaustive survey, my aim in this paper is to analyze the various ways by which different Sufi brotherhoods in Syria and Israel have responded to the challenges of modernity in general, and to the peculiar political circumstances in which they live in particular.
Among the Syrian brotherhoods that experienced a marked decline or that disappeared during the twentieth century, De Jong includes the major turuq of the Qadiriyya, Khalwatiyya and Mawlawiyya in his mid-1980s survey. [2] The weakening of the Qadiriyya had already become conspicuous by the turn of that century. Essentially an urban brotherhood in Syria, its major branches were led by the notable Kaylani family of Damascus and Hamah, who claimed descent from the founder 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani. In the late Ottoman period leading members of the family became administrators, later turning into influential politicians and entrepreneurs.[3] The last actual shaykh in the family was Muhammad Fariz al-Kaylani, a follower of Ibn 'Arabi who died in Damascus in 1971 without designating an heir.[4] In Hamah, the Qadiriyya continued to be observed as a family tradition until its open support of the Islamic uprising in 1982 brought upon it the brunt of the regime. Many members of the family were killed by the security forces, while their illustrious lodge (zawiya), and indeed the entire quarter in which they resided, were razed to the ground.[5] In the rural areas local leading Qadiri families, such as the Zu'bis of the Hawran, have continued to enjoy influence among the peasants even after relinquishing their Sufi identity.[6]
A closer look at this process of decline is provided by Paolo Pinto in a recent anthropological study conducted in Aleppo. One of the focuses of this study is the Hilaliyya brotherhood, which since the eighteenth century has combined the local Qadiri tradition with the then reformist Khalwati import. At present the dhikr is still performed in two lodges in the city, but the brotherhood's characteristic practice of seclusion (khalwa) is no longer in use because, as its leaders maintain, in modern times people have neither the leisure nor the possibility to set aside their work.[7] Shaykh al-Hilali, a physician, follows his ancestors' tradition in stressing the primacy of the shari'a and in combining the religious and secular sciences. Subscribing to the decision of his grandfather to discontinue the path rather than compromise its ideals, he avoids guiding disciples and is content with conducting the dhikr and with providing spiritual advice for the community. In the weekly session (hadra), Pinto reports, around one hundred adherents are assembled, most of them belonging to the old commercial families of Aleppo. Some of the participants are organized into an informal study group in which they discuss their spiritual experiences and read Sufi texts. Among these texts is the Sufi compendium of the local Shadhili-'Alawi reformist shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir 'Isa, which has appeared in several editions since it was first published in 1961.[8]
The other major brotherhood that De Jong considers as having lost its ground in Syria, the Mawlawiyya, may have done so in its traditional form. In Aleppo, to where the Great Master moved following the ban on Sufi activity in Turkey in 1925, the tariqa died out in the late 1950s. Yet, as elsewhere in the Muslim world, as well as in the West, groups of Mawlawis have exploited the unique ritual resources of their brotherhood – the whirling dance, musical improvisations, and special clothing – to turn the dhikr into a highly impressive, though often touristic, performance. In Damascus, the leader of the new-style whirling dervishes is Shaykh Hamza Shakkur, the choirmaster of singers (munshidin) in the Umayyad mosque and a vocalist who is much in demand for official religious ceremonies. Shakkur also cooperates with the al-Kindi Ensemble from Aleppo, which was founded in 1983 by Julien Jalaleddin Weiss, a converted Frenchman of Swiss extraction who had studied Arab music and specialized on the qanun. The group holds regular concert tours both in the Arab world and in Europe and America.[9]
As against the general decline of these basically urban-elitist brotherhoods, their rural-popular counterparts have proved more capable of holding to their traditions. Such is the case with the Sa'diyya, although the spectacular dawsa (the shaykh riding a horse over the backs of his murids) has been long prohibited by the state. Numerous local shaykhs are affiliated with this brotherhood in both the major Syrian cities and in the countryside. Its two centers are the Golan village of Jaba', the site of the founder's tomb, and Damascus, where his descendants vie for control over its rich awqaf. The Sa'diyya in the capital is considerably weakened, but still it is the only brotherhood to take part in the annual procession of laylat al-qadar, in which the first revelation to the Prophet is commemorated by exhibiting one of his hairs in the presence of religious dignitaries and State representatives. In Jaba' and the neighboring villages, by contrast, hadarat are still regularly conducted with all their traditional vigor, including beating drums, piercing the body with swords and eating burning coal and glass.[10]
Even more popular is the Rifa'iyya brotherhood, of which the Sa'diyya is sometimes considered a branch. Rifa'i zawiyas can be found in most towns of Syria, although, as in the case of the Qadiriyya, the leading families have been incorporated into the local elites; in Damascus rich merchants who are attached to the tariqa are engaged in editing and publishing its basic manuscripts. In Aleppo, however, some of its zawiyas were closed under Shishakli's military regime in the early 1950s, while in Hamah shaykh Mahmud al-Shaqfa, who was associated with the Muslim Brothers, was killed by Asad's security forces and his lodge closed in 1979.[11] The mainstay of the Rifa'iyya has always been in the countryside. The fortunes of the tariqa were enormously enhanced in Syria in the days of the infamous Abu al-Huda al-Sayyadi, who under the patronage of Sultan 'Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) attracted to the brotherhood a great number of people from the towns, the villages, and the tribes.[12] Considerably reduced during the interwar period, it still persists in many villagers. Thus for instance in Nahjat Brak in the Ghuta the dhikr is held, though only once a year, and is attended by peasants from the adjacent regions.[13] Pinto describes the working of another Rifa'i lodge in the predominantly Kurdish village of 'Afrin, north of Aleppo. The head of this zawiya, Shaykh Mahmud, is a descendant of a local family of the brotherhood and has eighteen disciples in various stages of the path. The dhikr of the group includes healing and expulsion of jinns, as well as, like the Sa'diyya, transpiercing the abdomen with an iron skewer (shish), walking over burning coals and glass eating.[14]
Popular mystical traditions are maintained in contemporary Syria, to some extent or another, also in their non-tariqa forms, particularly around the numerous tombs of prophets and saints which are dispersed throughout the country. The richest locus of sacred sites is naturally Damascus, and it may serve as an illustration of some of the still existing practices. Thus the caves on Mount Qasyun, overlooking the city from the north, are believed to contain the remains of literally hundreds of prophets. Barren women visit Maqam Ibrahim, while wayfarers address themselves to the alleged tomb of al-Khidr, their legendary patron. To this day sixty shaykhs will climb up the mountain in times of drought to perform the traditional prayer for rain. Another important sacred focus is the central Umayyad mosque where, it is claimed, the Prophet Yahya and Imam Husayn's severed head are interred. At the first, women solicit help in solving problems of motherhood and marriage, and many of them tie a rope to the lattice-work as a symbol of their commitment to fulfill their vow. The second tomb is the starting point of the afore-mentioned solemn procession of laylat al-qadar.[15]
Among the saints (awliya') buried in Damascus, the most illustrious is Muhyi al-Din ibn 'Arabi, in whose shrine in the north of the city an impressive hadra is conducted on Friday evenings. Al-Shaykh al-Akbar is visited both by common believers asking for worldly benefits and by mystics who attach themselves to his tomb for spiritual illumination. For the local population, though, even more important is the shrine of Shaykh Arslan, the twelfth-century patron saint and protector of the city. A recent saint is Shaykh Ahmad al-Harun (d. 1962), whose picture adorns many shops and whose miraculous deeds (karamat) are still widely circulated. A stonecutter in Mount Qasyun Harun, who had fiercely fought the French, immersed himself at an advanced age not only in the intricacies of Ibn 'Arabi's theosophy but also in the natural sciences, gaining the respect of both ulema and laymen.[16] The "Tales of the Saints" genre is indeed still popular in Syria, as is testified to, for example, by the posthumous publication of a collection of such stories compiled by Muhammad Abu al-Yusr 'Abidin, the Grand Mufti of the country between 1954 and 1962.[17]
Beyond the unchecked decline of an "elitist"-urban Qadiriyya or the retrograde traditionalism of a "popular"-rural Rifa'iyya, the Shadhiliyya and Naqshbandiyya Sufi brotherhoods of Syria have tapped into their reformist traditions in an effort to adapt themselves to the modern situation. Such adaptability allows their leaders not only to transcend the urban-rural divide, but – more importantly - to adopt elements from Western culture as well as from Islamic fundamentalist discourse. Moreover, in some cases the Sufi brotherhood appears to have transformed itself into new forms of religious organization in the face of these challenges, notably the educational society and the political movement.
Three Shadhili sub-brotherhoods have had a lasting impact on the Syrian lands in the modern period, all three crossing current political boundaries. The oldest among these branches, and the less effective today, is the Yashrutiyya, which has always stressed its a-political character. Founded in Acre by the Tunisian Shadhili-Madani Shaykh 'Ali Nur al-Din Yashruti (ca. 1815-1899) in the mid-nineteenth century, the brotherhood spread swiftly throughout the region, from Aleppo in the north to Gaza in the south, attracting both orthodox educated urban elites and disaffected villagers from the countryside with antinomian tendencies.[18] The leadership of the Yashrutiyya has remained within the founder's family, while its center moved first to Beirut, in the wake of the War of 1948 and then, in 1980, in the midst of the Lebanese civil war, to Amman. In Damascus a regular hadra is still held in the zawiya of Abu al-Shamat, 'Ali Nur al-Din's principal deputy (khalifa) in the city, though the once glorious construction is now in a deplorable state. Concentrations of Yashrutis are also found in small towns in the Hawran, in Sirmin near Aleppo, and in the Ghuta villages of Harasta and Daraya. Still a predominantly Palestinian brotherhood, its members are most numerous in the refugee camp of south Damascus, and even more so in the camps near Beirut and Sidon.[19] Another Shadhili sub-brotherhood introduced in Syria in the Second half of the nineteenth century was that of Yashruti's Madani colleague Muhammad al-Fasi. Brought to Damascus by the celebrated amir 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri, it seems to have remained confined to his elitist circle and died out before the end of the French Mandate.[20]
The second major modern Shadhili branch to strike roots in Syria was the Dandarawiyya, which had been founded toward the end of the nineteenth century by the Egyptian Muhammad al-Dandarawi (1839-1910), a spiritual grandson of the reformist Sufi scholar Ahmad ibn Idris. Spreading to both Damascus and the surrounding Ghuta in the 1890s, the tariqa still has a small presence in these areas, particularly in the village of Jisrin. Its center of activity in the Syrian lands, however, moved to Beirut, where it underwent a major transformation.[21] A glimpse at the working of this brotherhood is provided by Mark Sedgwick in a study of the worldwide spread and "normalization" of Ibn Idris' legacy. Its current head is the founder's grandson, Fadl al-Dandarawi (b. 1934), a Cairo-based wealthy businessman who in the early 1970s launched a new project to remold the tariqa. He was assisted by Su'ad al-Hakim, a Lebanese professor of Arab and Islamic philosophy and author of a celebrated study on Ibn 'Arabi's terminology.[22] On one level, Sedgwick argues, the new "Dandarawi thought" represents an attempt to return to the original reformist Ahmadi path; on another it is designed as an inclusive way which combines Sufism and Salafism and is appropriate for the modern world. This is embodied in the "Dandarawi family", and the history of the Dandarawiyya is reconstructed as having been a social organization in this "family" mold from the outset, rather than a Sufi tariqa. Fadl insists on being addressed as amir and regards the hadra as an "art" or "folklore". Hakim, a woman, conducts in Beirut, in accordance with this philosophy, a sober hadra for both men and women, as well as an educated discussion group.[23]
No research is as yet available on the Syrian 'Alawiyya, the third modern Shadhili branch to operate in the country, although the brotherhood as a whole is well known in the West, having been the inspiration for a remarkable group of mystically-minded intellectuals in Europe and North America.[24] Founded by the Darqawi shaykh Ahmad ibn 'Aliwa of Mustaghanim, Western Algeria, in the early nineteenth century, the 'Alawiyya was introduced by him in Damascus in the course of a pilgrimage he undertook shortly before his death in 1934. Combining, not unlike the Idrisi tradition, the theosophy of Ibn 'Arabi with a call to strictly follow the Qur'an and the Sunna, the brotherhood under the leadership of Muhammad al-Hashimi soon spread to other parts of the country, from Aleppo in the north to Amman in the south, and was very active both in the field of religious education and in the struggle against the French.[25] Similar to the case of the urban Rifa'iyya, the leaders of the Damascene 'Alawiyya have been lately engaged in publishing the writings of their masters, but more significant were the shaykhs from the north, who maintained its original militant zeal in supporting the violent struggle against the Ba'th. Among them were disciples of the above-mentioned Aleppine 'Abd al-Qadir 'Isa, who was consequently forced to spend the last years of his life in exile in Jordan, as well as those of 'Abd al-Ghaffar al-Durubi of Homs, many of whom were killed along with the Muslim Brothers in the notorious massacre in the Tadmur (Palmyra) military prison in June 1980.[26]
The Naqshbandiyya, unquestionably the most active brotherhood in contemporary Syria, has been long characterized by a tradition combining a strong orthodoxy with a sociopolitical orientation. Both traits were reinforced in the early nineteenth century by Shaykh Khalid, the founder of the Khalidi sub-brotherhood whose mausoleum lies in Damascus. Two of his spiritual descendants were responsible for turning the Khalidiyya into the most widespread Sufi organization in Syria in the twentieth century. These were 'Isa al-Kurdi (1831-1912), an immigrant scholar who ordained a great number of disciples in Damascus and the Ghuta, and Abu al-Nasr Khalaf (1875-1949), who propagated the path in the villages around his hometown Homs, as well as in Aleppo and Hamah.[27] A third center of the Naqshbandiyya-Khalidiyya can be found in the Kurdish areas of the northeast - the Jazira and Dayr al-Zor.[28] These essentially independent local branches adopted different and, in some respects, even opposing attitudes toward the questions of religious renewal, the Salafi challenge and, above all, relations with the Ba'th regime. Mention should also be made of Nazim al-Qubrusi, founder of the Haqqaniyya branch, who had initially established himself at his master's shrine in Damascus, but whose brotherhood has now become a truly international organization counting members in many countries around the globe, from Lebanon and Turkey to England and the United States.[29]
The leading Naqshbandi branch in Syria today is that of Ahmad Kuftaro (b. 1915), son of one of 'Isa al-Kurdi's principal deputies in Damascus.[30] This is the only Sufi organization in the country to be allowed freedom of action by the regime, with whom it is closely associated. Despite claims for early beginnings, the Kuftariyya seems to have emerged following the Ba'th takeover in 1963, and the election of Kuftaro a year later to the highest religious position in Syria, that of the Grand Mufti.[31] In 1971, after the rise to power of Hafiz al-Asad who sought to appease the Sunni population, Kuftaro's mosque in north Damascus was made the basis of the Abu al-Nur Islamic Foundation. The first recognized college within this trust, The College for Islamic Propagation, was inaugurated in 1982, at the height of the Islamic uprising. The Kuftariyya appeals to social strata generally higher than other Sufi brotherhoods in Syria, especially small merchants and junior functionaries. It has a female wing under Kuftaro's younger daughter, Wafa', who propagate his message among women in weekly lectures in the Abu al-Nur Foundation, where she also conducts the dhikr, and in various mosques in Damascus.[32] Kuftaro regards himself in addition as the spiritual father of the more independent female Sufi organization of the Qubaysiyya, which directs its attention to women from higher social classes. Members of this organization run highly appreciated private schools in Syria, and it has lately spread to other countries of the Middle East.
Faithful to the reformist tradition of the Naqshbandiyya, Ahmad Kuftaro seeks to adapt its path to the modern situation by propagating a learned and discreet form of Sufism which is based on the Qur'an and the shari'a. Particularly under the inspiration of the Indian scholar Abu al-Hasan al-Nadwi, he also stresses engagement in social affairs and rejects monastic mysticism (rahbaniyya) as a major cause of the social and cultural weakening of Islam.[33] The focus of Kuftaro's reformist activity lies in the sphere of education. On the basis of the Abu al-Nur Foundation, where he himself continues to deliver a weekly lesson in front of thousands of people, Kuftaro has founded numerous religious institutions, from private schools for boys and girls to an Islamic center of higher education which since 1992 has provided Ph.D. degrees in Islamic Law. To enhance the prestige of the foundation, he formed connections with various universities in the Muslim world – in Libya, Pakistan and Sudan – as well as in North America, where an Abu al-Nur Institute was opened in 1993 in Baltimore, Maryland. In view of the great importance that Kuftaro attaches to modern technology, the foundation also supports students of high-status professions, while inculcating in them its religious values. Some of his close relatives are themselves engineers trained in the West, and they helped him develop the Abu al-Nur Foundation beyond its strictly religious functions into an effective economic, social and political organization.
Yet in face of the fierce Salafi critique of Sufism, Ahmad Kuftaro has proved ready to go beyond the traditional reformism of the Naqshbandiyya and eventually adopt much of the discourse and argumentation of his rivals. In this endeavor, he downplays his relation to the great Naqshbandi masters of the past, including Shaykh Khalid,[34] while stressing his good relations with most moderate Islamists.[35] Moreover, once again in the footsteps of Nadwi,[36] Kuftaro suggests to do away with the Sufi terminology in favor of a strictly Qur'anic vocabulary. In this scheme of "spiritual education" (tarbiya ruhiyya) the terms tasawwuf and tariqa themselves are to be substituted by the less controversial ihsan and tazkiyat al-nafs.[37] Kufatro explicitly follows the Salafis in denouncing legal school partisanship and the practice of imitation (taqlid) in favor of individual reasoning (ijtihad). He likewise stresses the need to interpret Islam in relation to the present, and of being guided by reason, often declaring that religion is nothing but "mature reason". On the other hand, Kuftaro and his associates are keen to demonstrate to the Salafis that the Sufis' inner search of God has not diverted them from active participation in jihad.[38] Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti, a highly popular doctor of Islamic Law from the University of Damascus who is also affiliated to the Naqshbandiyya,[39] fully supports Kuftaro's approach. In a book dedicated to the refutation of extreme Salafi positions, Buti approves of the shaykh's terminology while showing, by way of ijtihad, that the dhikr and other Sufi practices are fully compatible with the Qur'an and the Sunna.[40]
Another aspect in which Ahmad Kuftaro departs from the traditional way of the Naqshbandiyya, in this case even beyond the reformism of the Salafis, concerns his propagation of the religion. As already mentioned, the Abu al-Nur Foundation has an active da'wa department, which uses modern devices - from videotapes and audio cassettes to the Internet - to spread the shaykh's message among both Muslim and non-Muslim audiences. For the latter, a collection of lectures translated into English was published in 1993 under the title "The Way of Truth", and was expanded in a second edition in 1997. Kuftaro himself has exploited his extensive travels in an official capacity to present Islam and Sufism, his earliest visit being as early as 1966 to the United States.[41] His da'wa is nevertheless characterized by an intentional ambiguity. On the one hand, Kuftaro adheres to the orthodox position, held by Naqshbandis and Salafis alike, that Islam is the final and most perfect religion; on the other hand, however, he points out that the three monotheistic religions stem from a common source, and further maintains that all denominations are different traditions of the one universal religion. In harmony with the latter position, also indicated in the title of his official website – Abrahamic religions - Kuftaro has been long engaged in interfaith dialogue, taking part in various conferences around the world and hosting delegations of clergymen, particularly Christian, in the Abu al-Nur mosque. In recent years his interests have expanded to include other issues of international concern, notably those of human rights and the environment.[42]
Students of the Syrian religious scene assess differently the special relations between Ahmad Kuftaro and the Asad regime. Thus the more affirmative Geoffroy counts the shaykh among those resilient men of religion, mostly from Damascus, who have sought to assuage the hostility of the Ba'th and avoid complete rupture. The accusations against his compromising stands are, according to this interpretation, nothing but the age-old claim about the corruption of ulema in the service of rulers.[43] Stenberg, on his part, stresses the fact that although Kuftaro may be allied with – or even controlled by – the Syrian regime, he also can influence the political leadership through his position as the highest religious authority at the head of a large religious movement.[44] He however concurs with Böttcher's view of Kuftaro as a tool in the Islamic policy of the regime,[45] and with De Jong's assertion that the cultivation of the Kuftariyya seems to have been designed to weaken the position of the politically unreliable Naqshbandi shaykhs of the north and northeast.[46] In my view, its cultivation was more specifically aimed at offsetting the influence of Sa'id Hawwa, the foremost ideologue of the Islamic opposition in Syria, who was deeply attached to Sufism in general, and to the northern branch of the Naqshbandiyya in particular.[47]
The affinity between the ideas and discourse of the Naqshbandi brotherhood of Syria and its Salafis-Islamists, which has been noted even in the case of the state-backed Kuftaro, was much more pronounced in the north, where disciples of Abu al-Nasr Khalaf were instrumental in founding local branches of the Muslim Brothers in the 1930s and 1940s. Outstanding among these Naqshbandi-oriented Brothers were Muhammad al-Hamid (1910-1969) in Hamah and 'Abd al-Fattah Abu-Ghudda (1917-1997) in Aleppo.[48] Under the rule of the Ba'th, Abu-Ghudda emerged as the leader of the Islamists' northern faction, while Sa'id Hawwa (1935-1989) perpetuated Hamid's work on the national level. Sufism permeates Hawwa's entire oeuvre, one of the expressed aims of which was to familiarize the Islamic movement with the reformist Sufi tradition and thus provide it with a spiritual "depth". In a series of books he dedicated to the subject, notably Tarbiyatuna al-ruhiyya and al-Mustakhlas fi tazkiyat al-anfus, Hawwa in all probability preceded Kuftaro in deemphasizing the Sufi vocabulary.[49] Indignant, though, at the Damascene shaykh's complicity with the un-Islamic Ba'th, he went beyond the latter's rejection of rahbaniyya to elaborate upon Nadwi's complementary concept of rabbaniyya, making it the basis for a sociopolitical alternative. Through this concept, Hawwa conceived of a grass-roots organization, a popular supra-brotherhood as it were, that would unite all the Islamic forces in the country and lead them in the struggle for religious revival in general, and against the secular tendencies of the Ba'th in particular.[50] The Hamah uprising of 1982, and its brutal suppression by Asad's regime, left Kufatro's accommodating collaboration the only alternative open before the Syrian Naqshbandiyya.
Sufi manifestations in contemporary Israel differ considerably from those in Syria in both their scope and the identity of the brotherhoods involved. The differences go back to Ottoman Palestine, in which the Sufi brotherhoods were less organized and of a more limited social significance. The Naqshbandiyya has never struck roots here, its presence being generally restricted to a zawiya run by Uzbeks in Jerusalem, while the Mawlawiyya and Rifa'iyya had practically disappeared, the first already by the beginning of the twentieth century, the other in 1948.[51] Three brotherhoods - The Qadiriyya, Yashrutiyya and Khalwatiyya-Rahmaniyya were able to adapt themselves to the Israeli realities, in ascending order of success. Various local groups of the Qadiriyya were active in Palestine during Ottoman times, in both towns and villages. These groups disintegrated in 1948, but in recent years new ones appeared, in the same fragmented manner, under leaders who received the path from different shaykhs in the West Bank and Gaza. They include Sa'id Abu-Laban, a descendant from the leading Qadiri family of Ottoman Ramla which was responsible for the ziyara at Nabi Salih's tomb; 'Abd al-Salam Manasara, an ex-Communist from Nazareth who adheres to a more sober type of Sufism; and the charismatic though controversial Abu Filastin from Sahnin in the Lower Galilee. In some cases, to fortify their standing, the shaykhs combine with the Qadiriyya other affiliations such as the Rifa'iyya and 'Alawiyya.[52]
The Yashrutiyya, whom we met in the refugee camps of Syria and Lebanon, introduced into Palestine a more organized type of Sufism during the last decades of Ottoman rule. Retaining its essentially centralized structure, the brotherhood was able to attract a wide membership throughout the country well into the British Mandate. Its fortunes were severely affected, however, by the events of 1948, when Muhammad al-Hadi, the founder's grandson, moved with many of his followers to Beirut. Several zawiyas were lost during the battles, and in 1952 the economic basis of the mother lodge in Acre was further undermined as most of its awqaf were confiscated. After 1967, the Yashrutis in Israel regained some of their former strength as they were allowed to establish contacts with adherents in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as in other parts of the Muslim world. The main figure in this renewed activity was Ibrahim Abu al-Hashish of Umm al-Fahm, where the largest concentration of Yashrutis is found today. With contributions from abroad the zawiya in Acre was also renovated, al-Hadi being buried there beside his fathers in 1981 with Israel's permission.[53] His son Ahmad occasionally visits the lodge and conducts a celebrated dhikr, but otherwise activity is limited to the religious festivals, notably the Prophet's mawlid.[54]
Much more successful in its accommodation to the Israeli realities is the Rahmani branch of the Khalwatiyya, a brotherhood that eventually disappeared in other parts of the Syrian lands. This branch was founded immediately after World War I by 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sharif, a former deputy (muqaddam) of the Yashrutiyya in Hebron who switched to the Khalwati silsila returning to the great reviver of the brotherhood in the eighteenth century, Mustafa al-Bakri. In his footsteps, the Rahmaniyya has propagated, possibly as a counterbalance to the antinomian tendencies among the rural Yashrutiyya, a reformist type of Sufism combining strictly following the Qur'an and the Sunna with the pursuit of worldly concerns.[55] Splitting after the founder's death in 1925, his most outstanding khalifa, Husni al-Din al-Qasimi, established himself in the village of Zayta, and further spread the path to the villages that now form the Triangle area in Israel.[56] Most important among these is the lodge in Baqa al-Gharbiyya, which four successive sons of Husni al-Din, the last being the present shaykh 'Abd al-Rauf al-Qasimi, managed by keeping cordial relations with Israeli authorities to develop after 1967 into an impressive religious-educational complex. It includes both a large mosque-zawiya where a regular dhikr is held for both men and women in separate rooms, and a rapidly expanding Islamic College, which was opened in 1989 and is served by a modern academic library. Enjoying the official recognition of the Ministry of Education, the college has currently more than five hundred students.[57]
Finally attention should be drawn to an Israeli version of the tariqa Ibrahimiyya. Although, as in Syria, this way aims at enhancing an interfaith dialogue, in Israel it was founded by a Jewish group, including a conservative Rabbi and academic scholars, who relate themselves to the Jewish Sufi tradition inaugurated by Rabbi Abraham son of Maimonides in the thirteenth century. The members used to meet to read Sufi texts and perform the dhikr under the guidance of Muslim Sufi shaykhs. These activities were interrupted following the break of the last Intifada in 2000, but recently they have been renewed.[58]
Although clearly losing ground in the face of the multi-faceted challenge mounted against it through the twentieth century, Sufism is still conspicuously present in many countries of the contemporary Muslim world. As the cases of Syria and Israel show, among the diverse Sufi traditions, it was primarily the reformist brotherhoods of the pre-modern era, particularly the Naqshbandiyya but also the Shadhiliyya and the Khalwatiyya, which proved most capable of adjusting to the modern circumstances. Adopting a seemingly paradoxical strategy of accommodating one agent of modernity or another - western rationalism, Islamic fundamentalism or, most importantly, the all-powerful State – by the close of the century branches from these brotherhoods have managed not merely to preserve their mystical traditions, but also at times to expand into new enterprises in the educational, socioeconomic and political realms.
[1] For a general discussion of the debate on Sufism in the twentieth century, see Carl W. Ernst, Sufism: An Essential Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of
the Mystical Tradition of Islam (Boston: Shambhala, 1997), 199-228; Elizabeth Sirriyeh, Sufis and Anti-Sufis: The Defence, Rethinking and Rejection of Sufism in the Modern World (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999), chs. 4-6.
[2] Fred de Jong, "Les confréries mystiques musulmanes au Machreq arabe," in Alexandre Popovic and Gilles Veinstein (eds.), Les Ordres mystiques dans l'Islam: Cheminements et situation actuelle (Paris: Editions de l'EHESS, 1986), 214.
[3] Linda Schatkowski Schilcher, Families in Politics: Damascene Factions and Estates of the 18th and 19th Centuries (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 1985), 194-196; Zaim Khenchelaoui and Thierry Zarcone, "La Famille Jilânî de Hama – Syrie (Bayt al- Jilânî)," Journal of the History of Sufism, 1-2 (2000), 61-71.
[4] On Fariz al-Kaylani, see Muhammad Muti' al-Hafiz and Nizar Abaza, Tarikh 'ulama' Dimashq fi al-qarn al-rabi' 'ashar al-hijri, (3 vols. Damascus: Dar al-fikr, 1986-1991), 3: 363-365.
[5] Eric Geoffroy, "Sufism, réformisme et pouvoir en Syrie contemporaine," Égypte/Monde arabe 29 (1997), 17.
[6] Hanna Batatu, Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of its Lesser Rural Notables, and their Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 107-108.
[7] On the Hilaliyya, see Julia Gonnella, Islamischer Heiligenverherung im urbanen Kontext am Beispiel von Aleppo (Syrien) (Berlin: Klaus Schwartz Verlag, 1995), 248-250, 261-263. Similar reasons are given for the actual disappearance of the Khalwatiyya from its once thriving center of Tripoli, see Daphne Habibis, "Change and Continuity: A Sufi Order in Contemporary Lebanon," Social Analysis 31 (1992), 49-50.
[8] Paolo Pinto, "Proof and Experience: the Construction of Religious Identity in the Sufi Zawiyas of Aleppo, Syria," a paper read at the 16th Middle East History and Theory Conference, University of Chicago, May 11-12, 2001, 3-8; 'Abd al-Qadir 'Isa, Haqa'iq 'an al-tasawwuf (5th ed. Damascus: Mu'assasat al-Sham lil-tiba'a wal-tajlid, 1993).
[9] www.turath.org/Events/Dervishes.htm. See also the discussion in Ernst, 191-194.
[10] De Jong, "Machreq arabe," 212-214; Pierre-Jean Luizard, "Le Moyen-Orient arabe," in Alexandre Popovic and Gilles Veinstein (eds.), Les voies d'Allah (Paris: Fayard, 1996), 361-362.
[11] De Jong, ibid., 215-216; Gonnella, 118-119, 263-268. For Mahmud al-Shaqfa, see Johannes Reissner, Ideologie und politik der Muslimbrüder Syriens von den Wahlen 1947 bis zum Verbot unter Adīb aš-Šišaklī 1952 (Freiburg: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1980), 427-428.
[12] Butrus Abu-Manneh, "Sultan Abdulhamid II and Shaikh Abulhuda al-Sayyadi," Middle Eastern Studies, 15 (1979), 131-153; Batatu, 107-108.
[13] Ibid., 105-108.
[14] Pinto, 8-14. For the practice of piercing the body with a shish, see also Gonnella, 74-76.
[15] Eric Geoffroy, "L'empreinte de la sainteté," in Anne-Marie Bianquis (ed.), Damas: Miroir brise d'un Orient arabe (Paris: Éditions Autrement, 1993), 166-169.
[16] Ibid, 169-174. On Ahmad al-Harun see also Hafiz and Abaza, 753-762.
[17] Muhammad Abu al-Yusr 'Abidin, Hakaya al-Sufiyya (Damascus: Dar al-basha'ir, 1993).
[18] On the history of the brotherhood see Josef Van Ess, "Libanesische Miszellen, 6: Die YašruÔīya," Die Welt des Islams, 16 (1975), 1-103; Itzchak Weismann, Taste of Modernity: Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 219-224, 252-255.
[19] De Jong, "Machreq arabe," 217-218.
[20] Weismann, Taste of Modernity, 197-198.
[21] Ibid., 255-256; De Jong, ibid., 216.
[22] Su'ad al-Hakim, al-Mu'jam al-sufi: al-hikma fi hudud al-kalima (Beirut: Dandara lil-tiba'a wal-nashr, 1981).
[23] Mark J.R. Sedgwick, "The Heirs of Ahmad Ibn Idris: The Spread and Normalization of a Sufi Order, 1799-1996," (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Bergen, 1998), 235-247, 266-277.
[24] See Martin Lings, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century - Shaykh Ahmad al-'Alawi: His Spiritual Heritage and Legacy (2nd ed. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1971); Mark Sedgwick, "Traditional Sufism", Aries 22 (1999), 3-24.
[25] See the entries on Muhammad al-Hashimi and Muhammad Sa'id al-Burhani in Hafiz and Abaza, 747-751, 794-804; as well as 'Isa, 618-631, and Muhammad Riyad al-Malih, al-'Allama Muhammad Sa'id al-Burhani: Arba'un 'amm fi mihrab al-tawba (Damascus: n.p., 1387 A.H.).
[26] Geoffroy, "Sufism, réformisme et pouvoir," 17-18.
[27] See my two articles, "The Forgotten Shaykh: 'Isa al-Kurdi and the Transformation of the Naqshbandi-Khalidi Order in Twentieth Century Syria," Die Welt des Islams 43 (2003), 273-293; and "Sa'id Hawwa: The Making of a Radical Muslim Thinker in Modern Syria," Middle Eastern Studies 29 (1993), 607-611.
[28] De Jong, "Machreq arabe," 214-215; Gonnella, 224, 269-270.
[29] On Nazim al-Qubrusi and his international activity, see Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, The Naqshbandi Sufi Way: History and Guidebook of the Saints of the Golden Chain (Chicago: Kazi Publications, 1995), 375-408; Habibis, 44-78; Annabelle Böttcher, "The Naqshbandiyya in the United States", www. naqshbandi.net/haqqani/features/ Naqshbandiyya_in_us.htm.
[30] For biographical details, see Muhammad Habash, al-Shaykh Amin Kuftaru fi dhikra khamsin 'am 'ala wafatihi (Damascus: Dar al-ma'rifa, 1989); idem, al-Shaykh Ahmad Kuftaru wa-minhajuhu fi al-tajdid wal-islah (Damascus: Dar al-nur, 1996).
[31] My description of the Kuftariyya and its working is mainly based on the following sources: Annabelle Böttcher, Syrische Religionspolitik unter Asad (Freiburg, 1998), 147-223; Leif Stenberg, "Naqshbandiyya in Damascus: Strategies to Establish and Strengthen the Order in a Changing Society," in Elisabeth Özdalga (ed.), Naqshbandis in Western and Central Asia (Istanbul: Swedish Research Institute, 1999), 101-116; Geoffroy, "Sufism, réformisme et pouvoir," 11-18.
[32] See also Annabelle Böttcher, "L'élite féminine kurde de la Kaftariyya: une confrérie Naqshbandi Damascène," in Martin van Bruinessen (ed.), Islam des Kurdes (Paris: ERISM, 1998), 125-139.
[33] See Abu al-Hasan 'Ali al-Hasani al-Nadwi, Rabbaniyya la rahbaniyya (4th ed. Beirut: Mu'assasat al-risala, 1986). On his acquaintance with Kuftaro see idem, Mudhakkirat sa'ih fi al-sharq al-'arabi (2nd ed. Beirut: Mu'assasat al-risala, 1975), 224-225, 236-238.
[34] Stenberg, 109.
[35] 'Imad 'Abd al-Latif Naddaf, Al-Shaykh Ahmad Kuftaru yatahaddath (Beirut: Dar al-rashid, 1997), 150-192. Stenberg reports that among Kuftaro's young adherents the ideas of Hasan al-Banna are well-known and widely discussed.
[36] Nadwi, 7-11.
[37] For an exposition of this doctrine in the context of the anti-Salafi debate, see Muhammad al-Shaykhani, al-Tarbiya al-ruhiyya bayn al-Sufiyyin wal-Salafiyyin (Damascus: Dar Qutayba, 1990), esp. 191-195, 287-297.
[38] Ibid., 299-303. For a widely acclaimed historical exposition of the Sufi's contribution to jihad struggles, see As'ad al-Khatib, al-Butula wal-fida' 'inda al-Sufiyya (Damascus: Maktab al-Ghazali, 1995).
[39] See Andreas Christmann, "Islamic Scholar and Religious Leader: a Portrait of Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti," Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 9 (1998), 149-169.
[40] Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti, Al-Salafiyya: marhala zamaniyya mubaraka, la madhhab Islami (Damascus: Dar al-fikr, 1988), 189-209.
[41] On Kuftaro's philosophy of da'wa, see Wahid Taja, al-Khitab al-Islami al-mu'asir: muhawarat fikriyya (Aleppo: Fussilat lil-dirasat wal-tarjama wal-nashr, 2000), 21-34.
[42] See Naddaf, 120-149; www.abrahamicreligions.com/kuftaro/Interfaith.htm and www.abrahamicreligions.com/kuftaro/Environment.htm. For meetings with German and Swiss delegations see Naddaf, 295-309, and with an American delegation, see Syria Times, 18 December 1999, www.islamic-study.org/new
[43] Geoffroy, "Sufism, réformisme et pouvoir," 17.
[44] Stenberg, 106-107.
[45] Böttcher, 149.
[46] Frederick De Jong, "The Naqshbandiyya in Egypt and Syria. Aspects of its History, and Observations Concerning its Present-Day Condition," in Marc Gaborieau, Alexandre Popovic and Thierry Zarcone (eds.), Naqshbandis: cheminements et situation actuelle d'un ordre mystique musulman (Istanbul and Paris: ISIS, 1990), 600.
[47] For his biography, see Itzchak Weismann, "Radical Muslim Thinker", 601-623.
[48] For Abu-Ghudda, who was a disciple of Khalaf's deputy 'Isa al-Bayanuni, see Hanna Batatu, "Syria's Muslim Brethren," Merip Reports 110 (1982), 14; Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah Al Rashid, Imdad al-fattah bi-asanid wa-muruyyat al-Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattah (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Imam al-Shafi'i, 1999), esp. 149-150, 152; and www.aboghodda.com. For Hamid see my, "Religious Strife on the Periphery: Sufi Populists, Salafi Ideologues, and Muslim Brothers in Twentieth-Century Hamah," forthcoming in International Journal of Middle East Studies.
[49] Sa'id Hawwa, Tarbiyyatuna al-ruhiyya (2nd ed. Amman: Maktabat al-risala al-haditha, 1981), 6-8. See also the discussion in Geoffroy, "Sufism, Réformisme et Pouvoir," 12-13.
[50] Itzchak Weismann, "Sa'id Hawwa and Islamic Revivalism in Ba'thist Syria," Studia Islamica 85 (1997), 131-154.
[51] F. De Jong, "The Sufi Orders in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Palestine," Studia Islamica 58 (1983), 149-158, 167-174.
[52] De Jong, "Machreq arabe," 221-223; Luizard, 364-365; Arnon Dancho, "Ha-techiya shel ha-Sufim (The Revival of the Sufis)," Eretz ve-Teva 53 (1999), 45-53.
[53] De Jong, "Palestine," 179-180.
[54] Interview with Ibrahim Satal, attendant at the Shadhiliyya-Yashrutiyya complex in Acre, 7 August, 2002.
[55] 'Afif ibn Husni al-Din al-Qasimi, Adwa' 'ala al-tariqa al-Khalwatiyya al-Jami'a al-Rahmaniyya (n.p., 1997).
[56] De Jong, "Palestine," 175; idem, "Machreq arabe," 220. For the Rahmani silsila see Qasimi, 4-7. For the activities of its successive shaykhs, ibid., 59-63.
[57] Interview with 'Adil Badran, chief librarian of the Islamic College, Baqa al-Gharbiyya, 28 October, 2002.
[58] Zohara Ron, "Be-Darko shel Avraham (In the Path of Abraham)," Masa Akher 111 (2000), 83-88.


text:
quote:Originally posted by rcmann: I recommend reading out loud, to yourself and/or others. If possible, get someone to read it to you. If not, use software to have the computer read it to you. Hearing the story aloud puts it into a completely different context and engages a different part of the brain. I spot a lot of things that way that I would never have noticed otherwise.
quote:Originally posted by lizluka: One thing I worry about is when to give it to a first reader. On the one hand I don't want to waste their time (or mine) by handing over something that isn't at it's best, but since there's always going to be possibilities for improvement it can be hard to let go and say 'okay, this is good enough for someone else to read.' Or maybe I'm just a bit insecure about scrutiny. Probably both. (sigh)
quote:Originally posted by mobewan: @meredith, extrinsic - interesting. I do it in the reverse order. Partly I think because I need things to be "correct" before I can sink into them. But I'm also a very inexperienced writer, so my work needs a lot of corrections :-) Must admit, I'm hoping with experience comes less of a need for actual corrections and I can focus on the experience more.Love seeing what others do (and why). Makes me think...
quote:Originally posted by Meredith:Why spend time fixing a sentence or a paragraph that might not even be in the final draft?
quote:Originally posted by Meredith:I don't know, extrinsic. When I say my first pass through is to address the notes I've made in the ms, those very often are things that will affect the reading experience. I'm setting the story in what will (hopefully) be it's final form. (Subject to change based on critiques.) I think it's at least similar to what you describe. After that, it's cosmetics and mechanics of greater or lesser import.
quote:Posted by mobewan:Must admit, I'm hoping with experience comes less of a need for actual corrections and I can focus on the experience more.
quote:Originally posted by extrinsic: Wow, am I the odd writer out when it comes to revision processes.
quote:Originally posted by Osiris: quote:Originally posted by extrinsic:Wow, am I the odd writer out when it comes to revision processes. Definitely not. I think learning what to prioritize in revision goes hand-in-hand with learning what a writer's priorities are.
quote:Originally posted by extrinsic:Wow, am I the odd writer out when it comes to revision processes.
quote:Originally posted by lizluka: I'm trying to wrap my head around the process.
quote:Originally posted by MattLeo:As far as I can see, there are three or four basic types of revisions, going by literary function. Extrinsic may be able to help here with a better taxonomy than mine:
quote:Originally posted by MattLeo: [QUOTE]Now, for an awe inspiring example of story development revision planning, check out J.K. Rowling's plot chart for *Order of the Phoenix*: http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/sources/jkr.com/jkr-com-trans-revision-ootp.html . It's a stunning display of revision discipline, although the immense scale of the book may have made this necessary. At over a quarter of a million words long, it's by far the longest of the Potter books.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
How do you say adzuma, learn the pronunciation of adzuma in PronounceHippo.com
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NVME / SSD block cache – bcache vs lvmcache benchmark
Why care about IO performance?
Recently I've acquired some new hardware and I want it to perform as fast as possible. The setup is quite trivial for a home desktop nevertheless I wanted it to excel on IO performance as it will be use as my backup server too. A common way to improve performance is by adding a cache system, this applies to many things in IT and block devices are no exception.
The relevant hardware components for this post are the 7x 2TB drives and 1x NVME card. The setup is not ideal as the models are not all the same, some to perform better than others some are newer and others older. Nevertheless money and storage capacity was important also I wanted to use them anyway. Security is also very important, so all the data written to these drives (including the NVME card) must be encrypted. On the other side I want to be able to expand the raid devices when the time comes so I also use LVM, as file system I use XFS with the default settings.
You may wonder why didn't I use a simpler setup with BTRFS or ZFS? Mostly because I wanted to use raid 5 or 6 and on BTRFS the stability is still and issue on this form of raid. On the other hand with ZFS it would be difficult to grow to the pool in the future.
The logical setup is as follows
- 1x raid 5 with 6 drives (+1 hot spare)
- LVM on top of the raid device
- Cache device or Logical volume
- Block encryption layer – LUKS
- File system – XFS
The hardware list
- NVME Samsung SSD 960 PRO 512GB
The NVME device is used both to the OS, Home, etc, but it does contain a LVM logical volume to be used as cache for the raid device. The number of IOPS / bandwidth the NVME is rather high, it goes all the way up to 440.000 IOPS and a bandwidth of 3.5GB/s, which is quite insane and I won't be able to exhaust with my day to day use, so it can spare a few IOPS to make my backups go a bit faster.
I've tested bcache and lvmcache, as a benchmark tool I've used iozone. I've done the tests with 256kB,1MB,8MB block sizes, the test file is 96GB (as it needs to be bigger than the total ram amount 64GB).
The initial test was made using the full setup without any caching system, it will be used to set a base of comparison.
Each test was done with 3 different block sizes 256K, 1MB, 8MB, test settings and cache mode for all the test is "writeback":
- md device, raid 5
- lvm volume
- luks
- xfs
Using no cache
Test setup
- MD Raid 5
- LVM lv data
- Luks
In what regards to overall performance the outcome is not as expected. LVM cache really didn't seem to improve the system performance. In some of the tests it was quite slower than the no cache mdraid and in some other just slightly faster. Nevertheless bcache did show real improvement being faster in all the tests, some by more than 30%.
Although bcache improves the system, it's also the most difficult system to setup, lvmcache is totally integrated in LVM tools and in the kernel, bcache requires the installation of bcache-tools as it's not a default on most distributions.
If you fell comfortable with Linux, block devices, mdraid and LVM I would recommend it without worries, if you're not familiar with this set of tools I would recommend you to test your setup before you run it in a server / desktop environment.
The performance benefits are worth the extra work.
Test raw report files
Bellow are the iozone generated reports and the ods spreadsheet I used to build the graphs.


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Guest post from Henrik Österblom from the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Basic ecology rests firmly on a number of basic assumptions. Some of these assumptions, specifically how predators interaction with their prey, were developed by a key figure in the history of resilience – Buzz Holling. The Holling type I, II and III functional responses are standard material in many textbooks in ecology (here's wikipedia on functional response). The different functional responses reflect the prey consumption ratio as a function of food density. I learned about these different types of functional response more than a decade before coming across anything related to resilience theory, which is perhaps not surprising as the first papers published by Holling on the topic came out in the late 1950s (Holling 1959).
The different functional responses reflect different ways in which predator consumption of prey varies with changes in food density. The functional response is also related to the numerical response – the reproduction rate in relation to food abundance. If this is too technical, bear with me.
As shown above, a type I functional response is linear – meaning that more prey means that more prey are consumed – straightforward and simple. A type II response is non-linear – the number of prey consumed/reproduction increases initially but reaches a plateau at a certain prey density, as the predator ability to consume prey is gradually saturated. A type III response is more complex and S shaped, with a slow increase in prey consumed/reproduction, due to difficulty in discovering prey, followed by an increase and subsequent leveling off, as predators are saturated (for more background see here).
What has all this got to do with seabirds?
Seabirds are some of the most conspicuous components of the marine environment and are also well studied throughout the world. Many places where seabirds are studied also have monitoring programs for their prey. Seabirds prey on small pelagic, fat schooling fish – some of which are very important in the rapidly growing aquaculture and meat production sectors.
Recently, I was part of a large group of scientists who analyzed long-term data collected of seabird breeding success, for a range of seabird species breeding throughout the world, including puffins, murres, gulls and penguins. Several of these data sets had previously indicated a type I, or possibly a type II response in some instances, but the evidence were inconclusive. However – when putting all the data together, an interesting pattern emerged – the data indicated a clear type II response!What was even more interesting was that this response was consistent across ecosystems and species. All ecosystems and species investigated had a very similar level of the threshold – regardless of latitude or foraging strategy. Although we assumed that there would be some nonlinear response in all ecosystems and species, we did not think the threshold would be so similar in where it was located (i.e., at one third of the maximum observed fish biomass).
The key figure from our paper is below.
The findings, just published in Science (Cury et al. 2011), show that seabirds are unable to increase their breeding output over a certain prey abundance. However, if the amount of prey falls below a threshold – which we estimated at one third of the observed maximum prey abundance – breeding success drops dramatically. This non-linear response has potentially important implications for management: If forage fish stocks are maintained above the identified threshold – seabird breeding success is likely sustainable. However, if fish stocks are harvested to below this level for extended periods of time, we are likely to observe decreasing breeding success and decreasing seabird populations. The study suggests that the one-third rule of thumb can be used as a precautionary guiding principle for marine management. So, potentially, we can use some basic principles from ecology to arrive at some basic principles for marine resource use.
The study highlights the importance of curiosity driven research and long term monitoring program. These monitoring programs were not primarily intended to inform management of marine resources but were instead set up by individuals with a keen interest in basic seabird ecology The study also underlines the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration for producing fun and exciting syntheses. Most of all, it highlights how rewarding it is to work with seabirds – coolest critters on the planet. Seabirds occupy some of the most remote and harsh habitats on the planet and are incredibly resilient – until critical thresholds are passed.
Cury, P.M., Boyd, I.L., Bonhommeau, S., Anker-Nilssen, T. Crawford, R. J. M., Furness, R.W., Mills, J.A., Murphy, E.J., Österblom, H., Paleczny, M., Piatt, J.F., Roux, J.-P., Shannon, L., Sydeman, W.J., 2011 Global Seabird Response to Forage Fish Depletion —One-Third for the Birds. Science 334 (6063), December 23. (DOI: 10.1126/science.1212928 )
Holling, C. S. 1959. The components of predation as revealed by a study of small-mammal predation of the European pine sawfly. Canadian Entomologist 91: 293-320


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歐洲國際聚會 / 2013年7月-8月
2013 電話會議
Lectures from International Gatherings in 2008 and 2009
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Dan Piraro
Wait a minute! I'm getting mild momentary amusement out of the flavors and feels of these products, and other animals are being tortured and losing their lives over it.
Does that weigh out? - torture and loss of life over a few seconds of amusement.
I mean it just doesn't weigh. And I just thought "You know, I'm not gonna do it."
I stopped; I just stopped.
Neal D. Barnard
Plant-based diets used to be thought of, as something that only philosophers would have.
Well, now we know that they're good for everybody and especially good for kids because
it keeps them slim and healthy.
Emily Deschanel
There are so many different reasons to go vegetarian. There's the health angle,
the nutrition angle, the cruelty that the animal faces. We have the environmental issue where it's a huge impact on the environment. and the number one way
you can go green is become a vegan.
James Cromwell
The process opens your mind; it opens your heart. It connects you to the planet through these animals, through what you eat. The vegetarian consciousness is a higher consciousness.
DIET Lists
Albert Einstein – 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics, Vegetarian
Albert Schweitzer – 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, Vegetarian
Sir C. V. Raman – 1930 Nobel Prize for Physics, Vegetarian
Chandrashekar Subrahmanyam – 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics, Vegetarian
Elie Wiesel – 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, Vegetarian
George Wald – 1967 Nobel Prize for Medicine, Vegetarian
Isaac Bashevis Singer – 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature, Vegetarian
JM Coetzee – 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature, Vegetarian
Linus Pauling – 1954 Nobel Prize for Chemistry and 1962 Nobel Peace Prize, Vegetarian
Rabindranath Tagore – 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature, Vegetarian
Dr. Rajendra Pachauri – 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, Vegetarian
Romain Rolland – 1915 Nobel Prize for Literature, Vegetarian
Shmuel Yosef Agnon – 1966 Nobel Prize for Literature, Vegetarian
V. S. Naipaul – 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature, Vegetarian
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan – 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Vegetarian
Adam Myerson – American professional bicycle racer, Vegan
Billie Jean King – American champion tennis player, Vegetarian
Brendan Brazier – Canadian triathlete and ultramarathon runner; Vegan
Bryan Danielson – American wrestling champion, Vegan
Ed Templeton – American professional skateboarder, Vegan
Georges Laraque – Haitian-born ice hockey player, Vegan
Hannah Teter – American snowboarder, Olympic gold medalist, Vegetarian
John Salley – 4-time US National Basketball Association champion, Vegan
Dr. Katharina Wirnitzer - Austrian sports scientist & athlete, Vegan
Kenneth G. Williams – Professional bodybuilder, Vegan
Kristopher Aaron – Ultra-marathon runner, Raw Vegan
Mac Danzig – American mixed martial arts fighter, Vegan
Mike Mahler – American strength coach, Vegan
Mike Tyson – American professional boxing champion
, Vegan
Molly Cameron – American professional bicycle racer
, Vegan
Murray Rose – Australian Olympic champion swimmer, Vegetarian
Paavo Nurmi – Finnish runner, winner of 12 Olympic medals, Vegetarian
Pat Neshek – American professional baseball player, Vegan
Prince Fielder – American Major League baseball player, Vegan
Ricardo Moreira – American mixed martial artist, Vegan
Robert Cheeke – American bodybuilder
, Vegan
Salim Stoudamire – American professional basketball player, Vegan
Scott Jurek – American ultramarathon runner, Vegan
Seba Johnson – Youngest alpine skier in Olympic history, Vegan
Taryn Terrell – American professional wrestler (female wrestler), Vegan
Tim Van Orden – American runner, Vegan
Tony La Russa – 2-time US Major League Baseball champion, 4-time Manager of the Year Award, Vegetarian
Walter Kowalski – Canadian wrestling champion
, Vegetarian
Willie Austin – American powerlifting world champion, Vegan
Abbie Cornish – Australian actress (
), Vegetarian
Adriano Celentano – Italian entertainer, Vegetarian
Adriana Karembeu – Slovak model and actress, Vegetarian
Alanis Morissette – Canadian singer, songwriter, Vegan
Alicia Silverstone – American actress (
), Vegan
André 3000 – American rapper, Vegetarian
Andrew Günsberg – Australian radio and television personality (
Australian Idol
), Vegan
Anthony Kiedis – American singer, songwriter (
Red Hot Chili Peppers
), Vegan
Bryan Adams – Grammy Award winning Canadian singer, songwriter, Vegan
Casey Affleck – American actor, Vegan
Casey Kasem – Lebanese-American radio personality, Vegan
Chrissie Hynde – Famed American rock musician, Vegan
Corey Feldman – American actor (
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
) , Vegetarian
Daryl Hannah – American actress; vegetarian (
), Vegan
Dirk Bach – German comedian and actor, Vegetarian
Doris Day – Legendary American actress, Vegetarian
Ed Begley, Jr. – American actor (
St. Elsewhere, Living with Ed
), Vegan
Elizabeth Berkley – American actress (
Saved by the Bell
), Vegetarian
Ellen DeGeneres – Emmy Award winning American TV show host and comedienne (
The Ellen Show
), Vegan
Emily Barclay – Award-winning actress, Vegan
Emily Deschanel – American actress (
), Vegan
Enrique Bunbury – Spanish rock singer, songwriter , Vegetarian
Eric Roberts – Oscar nominated actor, Vegan
Faye Wong – Chinese singer, songwriter, Vegetarian
Forest Whitaker – Oscar winning American actor, Vegetarian
Frances Fisher - British-born American actress (
), Vegetarian
Francis Lalanne – French Singer, Vegetarian
Gianni Morandi – Italian pop singer and entertainer, Vegetarian
Ginnifer Goodwin – American actress
(Big Love, Mona Lisa Smile)
, Vegan
Heather Mills –Former British model, Vegan
James Cromwell – Oscar and Emmy nominated American actor (
) , Vegan
Joaquin Phoenix – American actor (
), Vegan
Joan Jett – Popular American rock singer, Vegetarian
John Feldmann – American musician and producer (
), Vegan
k.d. lang – Grammy Award winning Canadian singer-songwriter, Vegan
Kareena Kapoor – Indian Bollywood actress, Vegetarian
Kevin Nealon – American actor; vegetarian (
Saturday Night Live
), Vegan
Lea Michele – Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress (
), Vegan
Lindsay Wagner – Emmy Award-winning American actress (
The Bionic Woman
) , Vegetarian
Maggie Q – American actress (
Mission Impossible III
), Vegetarian
Marc Lavoine – French singer and Actor, Vegetarian
Marcela Kloosterboer – Argentinian actress, Vegetarian
Marco Antonio Regil - Mexico's #1 TV host, Vegan
Maria Rosaria Omaggio – Italian actress, Vegetarian
Matisyahu – American Jewish reggae musician, Vegan
Michael Franti – Reggae artist, Vegan
Mireille Darc – French model and actress, Vegetarian
Missy Higgins – Australian singer-songwriter, Vegetarian
Moby – Multi-Grammy winning American electronic musician, Vegan
Montserrat Caballe – Spanish Soprano, Vegetarian
Morrissey – British singer songwriter (The Smiths), Vegan
Nathalie Baye – French Actress, Vegetarian
Natalie Portman –Acadmeny Award winning American actress, Vegan
Nina Hagen – German singer, Vegetarian
Olivia Wilde – Irish American actress, Vegetarian
Ozzy Osbourne – British multi-platinum singer-songwriter, Vegetarian
Pamela Anderson – Canadian actress, Vegan
Persia White – American actress (
), Vegan
Petra Němcová – Czech Supermodel, Vegetarian
Pippa Black, Australian actress, Vegetarian
Portia de Rossi – Australian actress (
Ally McBeal
), Vegan
Prince – Multi-Grammy and Oscar winning American singer, songwriter, Vegan
Robin Gibb – Australian singer, songwriter (
Bee Gees
), Vegan
Robin Quivers US radio personality, Vegan
Ruben Studdard – Grammy nominated singer, winner of
American Idol
, Vegan
Sean Astin – American actor (
Rudy, Lord of the Rings
), Vegetarian
Shania Twain, Canadian country pop singer, Vegetarian
Sinead O'Connor – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, Vegan
Spice Williams-Crosby – American actress and stunt performer, Vegan
Thom Yorke – British musician; and lead vocalist of Radiohead, Vegan
Tobey Maguire – American actor (
), Vegan
"Weird Al" Yankovic –Multi-Grammy winning American singer, songwriter and comedian, Vegan
Woody Harrelson – American actor (
), Vegan
Andrew Bartlett – Australian former senator of Queensland, Vegan
Cathy Jamieson – Scottish Member of Parliament, UK, Vegan
Caroline Lucas –Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Vegetarian
Dennis Kucinich – US Congressman and presidential candidate, Vegan
Edward McMillan-Scott – British Vice-president of the European Parliament, Vegan
Dr. Janez Drnovšek – 2nd president of Slovenia, Vegan
Juan Garay-Amores –European Union Directorate Human and Social Development Policy;, Vegetarian
Hilary Benn – British politician, former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Vegetarian
Kerry McCarthy – UK Member of Parliament, Vegan
Mahatma Gandhi – 20th century Indian spiritual and political leader, Vegetarian
Maneka Gandhi – Indian Member of Parliament, Vegan
King Trần Nhân Tông – 13th century monarch of Âu Lạc (Vietnam), Vegetarian
Emperor Wu of Liang – 6th century emperor of Chinese Liang Dynasty , Vegetarian
Abu-l-Ala-Almaorri – 11th century Syrian poet, philosopher , Vegetarian
Aristotle – 4th century BC Greek philosopher, Vegetarian
Benjamin Zephaniah – British Jamaican poet, Vegan
Professor Brian Greene – American theoretical physicist and string theorist, Vegan
César Chávez – 20th century American civil rights activist, Vegetarian
Coretta Scott King – 20th century American civil rights leader, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. , Vegetarian
Donald Watson – Founder of the UK Vegan Society and coiner of the term
, Vegan
Empedocles – 5th century BC Greek philosopher, scientist , Vegetarian
Franz Kafka – 20th century German novelist, Vegetarian
Gary Francione – American law professor, author, Vegan
H.G. Wells – 20th century British science fiction author, Vegetarian
Howard Lyman – American former 4th generation cattle rancher, author, Vegan
Iamblichus – 3rd century Assyrian philosopher, Vegetarian
Ingrid Newkirk – Founder and president of PETA, Vegan
Sir Isaac Newton – 17th century physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, Vegetarian
Jane Velez-Mitchell –Emmy Award-winning television journalist (CNN), Vegan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau – 18th century French philosopher, Vegetarian
Kathy Freston – American health and wellness author (
Quantum Wellness
), Vegan
Leo Tolstoy – Renowned Russian author, Vegetarian
Leonardo da Vinci – 15th century Italian polymath, Vegetarian
Lisa Bloom – CNN Legal Analyst, Vegan
Markos Moulitsas – Prominent American political columnist (Daily Kos, The Hill, Newsweek), Vegan
Michael C. Dorf – American law professor, Cornell University, author
Nicole Lapin – CNN News anchor, Vegetarian
Nikola Tesla – Eminent physicist, inventor and electrical engineer, Vegetarian
Plato – 5-4th century Greek philosopher, Vegetarian
Pythagoras – 6th century BC Greek philosopher , Vegetarian
Ralph Waldo Emerson – 19th century American philosopher, poet, author, Vegetarian
Sadeq Hedayat – 20th century Iranian author , Vegetarian
Sarah Kramer – American bestselling cookbook author, Vegan
Socrates – 5th century BC Greek philosopher, Vegetarian
Dr. Steven Best – American professor of animal rights; author, Vegan
Steve Wynn US luxury hotel proprietor, Vegan
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada – Founder of Hare Krishna Movement, Vegetarian
Amma – Indian spiritual leader "The Hugging Saint" , Vegetarian
Saint Augustine – 5th century North African theologian , Vegetarian
Baha'ullah – Enlightened Master, Vegetarian
Baba Sawan Singh – Enlightened Master, Vegetarian
Basil of Caesarea – 4th century Turkish Christian saint, Vegetarian
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen – 20th century Sri Lankan Sufi mystic, Vegetarian
Christian Rosenkreuz – Founder of Rosicrucian Order, Vegetarian
Clement of Alexandria – 2nd century Christian theologian, Vegetarian
Confucius – Enlightened Master, Vegetarian
Ellen G. White – Co-founder of 7th Day Adventist Church , Vegetarian
Emanuel Swedenborg – 18th century Swedish Christian mystic and theologian , Vegetarian
St. Francis of Assisi – Patron Saint of Animals, Vegetarian
Helena Blavatsky – Co-founder of Theosophy, Vegetarian
Henry Steel Olcott – Co-founder of Theosophy, Vegetarian
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī – 13th century Sufi saint and poet, Vegetarian
Jesus Christ – Enlightened Master, Vegetarian
Jiddu Krishnamurti – 20th century Indian spiritual teacher and author, Vegetarian
Saint John Chrysostom – 4th century Archbishop of Constantinople, Vegetarian
John Wesley – British Christian theologian, founder of Methodist Church, Vegetarian
Kabir – 15th century Indian poet saint, Vegetarian
Lao Tzu – Enlightened Master, Vegetarian
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – Founder of Transcendental Meditation, Vegetarian
Lord Mahavir – Enlightened Master , Vegetarian
Saint Martin de Porres – 17th century Peruvian monk, Vegetarian
Prophet Muhammad – Enlightened Master, Vegetarian
Guru Nanak Dev – Enlightened Master, Vegetarian
Paramahansa Yogananda – Indian spiritual teacher, Vegetarian
Rābi'a al-'Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya – 8th century Iraqi Sufi saint , Vegetarian
Shakyamuni Buddha – Enlightened Master, Vegetarian
Zoroaster – Enlightened Master, Vegetarian
International Sites
Âu Lạc
© Supreme Master Television


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McGill University's Division of Cancer Epidemiology, in coordination with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is launching a new clinical trial with over 450 women to determine the effectiveness of using a carrageenan-based topical gel to block HPV infections. The McGill research team has picked Divine Corporation's Divine 9® personal lubricant containing Carragel® as the carrageenan gel for the study, due to positive results in earlier laboratory tests performed by the NCI.
Orlando, Florida (PRWEB) January 07, 2013
Divine Corporation announced today its Divine 9® personal lubricant containing Carragel® has been selected by McGill University's Division of Cancer Epidemiology for use in their large-scale, double-blind human trial on the ability of a personal lubricant with a special form of carrageenan gel to prevent the transmission of human papillomavirus (HPV). The study is called CATCH, an acronym for Carrageenan-gel Against Transmission of Cervical HPV, and will involve tracking HPV infections in over four hundred female volunteers for a one year period. Divine Corporation's unique carrageenan-based personal lubricant Divine 9 was the only personal lubricant selected for the trial due to earlier laboratory studies by the National Cancer Institute that showed it to be a strong inhibitor of HPV transmission. CATCH is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
The McGill University research team is led by Dr. Eduardo Franco, Director of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and is coordinated by Joseph Tota (PhD candidate). Dr. Franco, a renowned expert on the prevention of cervical cancer and HPV-associated diseases, has published over 300 scientific articles and spoken at over 300 conferences worldwide.
"The CATCH study is a major initiative to determine if using a carrageenan-based gel can prevent the acquisition and transmission of HPV in a real world setting," explained Dr. Franco. "I'm extremely encouraged by the results of the laboratory studies by Dr. John Schiller's team at the National Cancer Institute. If the trial is successful, it would mean that women have another option for protecting themselves against HPV, the causative agent for cervical cancer."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control considers HPV the most common sexually transmitted disease and estimates at least 20 million Americans are currently infected with the virus. Worldwide, approximately 257 million women are infected with HPV according to the World Health Organization.
While most HPV infections are cleared by the body naturally, those that do not can cause cancers of the cervix, anus, vulva, vagina, penis, tongue, tonsils and throat. Virtually all cases of cervical cancer are caused by persistent infections by specific types of HPV. The World Health Organization lists cervical cancer as the second-leading cause of female cancer fatalities worldwide, accounting for more than 250,000 deaths each year. More than 85 percent of these cases occur in developing countries. In addition to the cancer concerns, certain types of HPV cause genital warts on both men and women.
"To date, the options to fight the spread of HPV have been limited," explained Michael Swor, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Divine Corporation. "Vaccines do not provide protection for women already infected by HPV and only work against either two or four of the more than one hundred HPV types, depending on which of the two available vaccines are used."
A research team at the National Cancer Institute has conducted both in vitro (laboratory) and in vivo (animal) studies and found Divine 9 was highly effective in inhibiting infection rates. The possibility that Divine 9 with Carragel, applied before sexual contact, can block the transmission of HPV would be a breakthrough with worldwide medical significance. As a result, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research is funding Dr. Franco and his team to complete the CATCH study.
The CATCH study will recruit 465 female volunteers and each will be supplied with either Divine 9 personal lubricant or a placebo lubricant. The volunteers will use the personal lubricants whenever they are in intimate situations for a period of one year. During their monthly follow-ups, the women will visit designated clinics to determine their HPV infection rates.
"We have worked closely with Dr. Franco and his team at McGill University on this remarkable study to reduce HPV prevention using our special Carragel formulation contained in Divine 9 personal lubricant," said Dean Fresonke, CEO of Divine Corporation. "With positive results, the world will have a powerful new weapon in the battle against cancer."
About Divine Corporation
Divine Corporation is dedicated to improving your sexual wellbeing. Intensive research has led to a line of products formulated with the company's proprietary carrageenan formula called Carragel®. Carragel is showing promise in its ability to block HPV infection in government-funded, independent laboratory studies. In addition to potential health benefits, Divine 9® delivers a sensual experience with its exotic, slippery feel that dries clean, never sticky. Look for Divine personal lubricants in health food stores, on-line drugstores such as Amazon.com and Drugstore.com, and other discriminating websites. Divine 9 with Carragel is "The Ultimate in Pleasure & Protection"® Learn more at http://www.divine9lubricants.com.
Jeff Hawkins 310-720-0215, jeff(at)divine9lubricants(dot)com
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prwebDivine_9_Lubricants/McGill_Trial_on_HPV/prweb10281133.htm
© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


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House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Monday he will for a third time call on Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to urge the ethics committee to investigate alleged House floor bribery, but if the Republican leader continues to balk, he vowed Democrats will be forced to file a complaint.
Hoyer said he will reach out to Hastert this week to reiterate his request for the Speaker to urge the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to look into whether GOP Members or lobbyists tried to bribe Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.) to change his vote on last November's Medicare bill.
"If we do not have a committee which will pursue allegations of wrongdoing, we'll have no other alternative except in the case of an individual Member making a complaint," Hoyer said in an interview. "We have no other alternative but to rely on that process."
Democratic leaders have called on the ethics panel to initiate an investigation on its own on the matter, but Chairman Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) has so far refused.
The No. 2 House Democrat said he has received no responses from the Speaker, to whom he penned a letter late last month on the matter. Hoyer followed up with a phone call to Hastert on Friday.
The Minority Whip has been raising concerns for weeks on the Smith incident, as well as on other allegations of unethical behavior by Republicans.
Hoyer said he is hopeful Hastert will agree the Smith matter is worthy of a nonpartisan ethics inquiry, and call on the panel to investigate. But Hoyer said he had "not been led to any degree of optimism by the initial responses," and thus House Democrats might have to go to the committee on their own.
Hastert's office is still in the process of deciding how — or if — to respond to Hoyer's recent letter. Several Republican leadership staffers said they felt Democrats had already tipped their hand and revealed their true intentions by openly portraying the letter as an opening salvo in a political campaign.
"It was shocking that the Democrats would admit this was part of their political strategy," one GOP aide said of Monday's stories on the matter in Roll Call and The New York Times. "They fully concede that it's part of an election-year push."
One senior Democratic aide said a filing would focus not on wrongdoing by an individual Member, but on Smith's own allegations following the Medicare vote.
According to published reports, Smith charged that GOP leaders and lobbyists promised money and support to his son's Congressional campaign in exchange for his 'yes' vote on the Medicare bill. Smith, who is retiring, has since backed away from the allegations.
If Democrats pursue an ethics inquiry, it would effectively sideline the two parties' seven-year cease fire over filing complaints. The truce has been in place since 1997 as a result of a tit-for-tat ethics battle that followed clashes over Democratic allegations against then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
Hoyer, an institutionalist with solid relationships on both sides of the aisle, said he went to Hastert because it is in both parties' interest that legitimate allegations are pursued, and because the Speaker "has a responsibility to protect the honesty and integrity of the House."
Hoyer conceded he is worried that if an individual Democratic Member files an ethics complaint, it could reignite the war between the two parties.
"Clearly that is a concern," Hoyer said. "That's why I was hopeful the ethics committee would pursue it or [Hastert] would direct it to do it."
Senior GOP sources said that it was by no means a foregone conclusion that they would retaliate if a Democrat does step forward and file a complaint regarding the Smith incident.
While Republicans feel confident that they have plenty of ammunition should an ethics war ensue — Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) were the most oft-mentioned potential targets — they also believe it might be wiser strategically to simply ignore a Democratic complaint and continue pushing forward with their legislative agenda.
"It's not necessarily in our best interests to play that game," said a senior GOP leadership aide, though the aide cautioned that no decisions on how to respond to a complaint would be made until the leaders and the full Republican Conference discussed the issue.
Hoyer said it would be "unfortunate" if Democrats are pressed to go to the ethics panel themselves. He added that he doesn't know which Democrat would make the filing, though senior-level sources throughout the Caucus say it would be a rank-and-file Member rather than a leader.
Hoyer said before that step is taken, however, he wants to speak directly with Hastert, as well as Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), the ranking member on the ethics committee.
"I don't want to make any judgments until I do that," he said.
Hoyer said he did not know whether Democrats on the ethics committee had yet pushed for an investigation internally. The committee operates in secret, and the cases it considers are kept largely under wraps.
The Minority Whip also said he could not speak to the timing of a possible ethics filing, but did say House Democrats "need to come to grips with it very soon."
Well-placed Democratic aides say a complaint could be filed in the coming weeks, but Members first will exhaust all other options to persuade Republicans to act. That could include a Member offering a privileged resolution, calling for an ethics probe.
"It's not time-sensitive in that if it doesn't come up this week people aren't going to go away, our ability to pursue it isn't going to go away," Hoyer said. "On the other hand, the longer this goes the less likely it is the public is going to think we have any procedures in place to look into allegations."
Beyond Smith, House Democrats are engaging in a broader strategy focusing on what they charge is a "pattern of corruption" by the majority party. Democrats also have raised concerns about Republican leaders' "K Street Project" to install Republicans in key lobbying posts.
Democrats have also raised questions about the fact that Energy and Commerce Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) has reportedly negotiated a lucrative job running the pharmaceutical industry's trade association after overseeing passage of the Medicare bill.
Republicans claimed that the parallels between Democrats' current efforts and the GOP campaign to take the majority in 1994 are misguided. While Republicans did employ ethics charges as political weapons 10 years ago, they also coupled those allegations with an alternative agenda embodied in the "Contract with America" and other items.
Now, Republicans argue, Democrats are hoping to tar the GOP as being unethical without offering a compelling vision of how they would govern differently.


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Japanese Street
Exploring the streets of Japan during a twenty four hour layover on the way to Bali.
The Boss
This guy looks like he runs the show here. I remember a monkey stealing my father's glasses. Then a man who was working at the temple traded the monkey some peanuts for the glasses back. My dad gave the man a tip. Standard monkey/human sting operation.
Uluwatu Monkeys
There were monkeys everywhere at the Uluwatu cliff temple.
Uluwatu Sunset
This negative had a horrible emulsion streak across it. I spent hours with the healing brush cleaning it up, along with dust spots and scratches. Can you tell?
Jungle Alleyway
It seems like everything in Bali has something growing on it.
Ubud Soccer Field
Panoramic of a soccer field and temple in Ubud, Bali. This was back in 2004, I wonder what it looks like these days.
Stepping Into Time
I really like the movement in this garden path photo. It just feels right.
Hanging Trinkets
Exploring the tourist shops in Ubud near the beginning of our trip.
Temple At Uluwatu
Got some awesome contrast at this cliffside temple near Uluwatu.
Mt. Batur
I took this panoramic of a storm rolling in over the active volcano Mount Batur on our first week in Bali.
We stayed at an awesome little bed and breakfast bungalow for a week or more in Sanur called Flashbacks. The owners were extremely nice and we quickly felt at home.
Asked this nice gentleman if I could take a photo of him painting and his kid jumped up and wanted to be in the photo too.
Motorcycle Blur
We pulled over on the side of the road to take photos of an amazing view of mountains and rice paddies, but while everyone was shooting the landscape I though I'd see if I could pull off a quarter second exposure and capture one of the motorcycles whizzing.
Lembongan Island Sunset
Another magical sunset on Lembongan Island. Somehow all the boats lined up and pointed at the sun perfectly for this shot. This was the first photo I ever sold, matted and framed in an art showing my high school dark-room photography put on.
I remember when I got back from Bali and printed a contact sheet of all my negatives from the trip, my photography teacher, Bill B. took a quick look, pointed out this photo and said with a smile, "Your whole trip was worth this one shot here."
Monkey Forest
Chillin' in the treetops, monkey style.
Lembongan Island Fishing Boat
Sunset silhouette of a lone fishing boat on Lembongan Island tethered to the beach.
Jungle Waterfall
I took this photo on a day hike to an amazing waterfall destination deep in the jungle.
Stairway Into The Jungle
Mom descending an ancient jungle stairway at Monkey Forest in Ubud, Bali.
Bali Bill
Dad, ready to go explore Ubud on day one of our Bali adventure.
Nick, looking really happy to have landed in the tropics and be off the long plane ride.
West Cliff
Same as it always was.
Vancouver Harbor Black & White
When you can't get the colors right I say make it black & white. More boats docks in Vancouver Harbor.


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Salt Creek Recreation Area: Striped Peak, Photo Gallery, Olympic National Park, Washington
Salt Creek Recreation Area: Striped Peak
Olympic National Park
The Striped Peak Trail runs through old and second growth upland forests to a 1,165' summit with panoramic views across the Strait of Juan de Fuca and northern Olympics. A short side spur leads down to a scenic cove with a small beach and tide pools. The trail is well-maintained with moderate grades ideal for runners and active families.
|Related Trails:
|Striped Peak
Salt Creek Recreation Area covers 196 acres of beach, bluffs and upland forests on the Strait of Juan de Fuca
The orographic effect occurs as moist air passes over the Olympic Crest and is forced to rise; in doing so it cools, expands and forms thick cloud banks
Lower portions of the Striped Peak Trail feature high concentrations of large cedar trees
Salmonberries, which form on tall bramble bushes, line lower portions of the trail and ripen in late May
After your hike, check out the tide pools at Tongue Point, an adjacent marine sanctuary which projects into the Strait
Striped Peak stands high over the Strait of Juan de Fuca with panoramic views that stretch from Vancouver Island to Mt Baker
A marked spur .85 miles from the trailhead leads 190' down to a scenic cove
Mule Deer tails have a black tip, while Black Tailed Deer tails are black up to the rump
View of 'The Cove' on the way to Striped Peak
The Striped Peak Trail has old and second growth characteristics


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Reinventing the zooSince 2011, the Leipzig Zoo, one of the oldest in Europe, is dominated by the giant "Gondwanaland" tropical hall. But it is just one of the attractions created under the "Zoo of the Future" program since 1990 which aims at much improved living conditions for the animals and a better experience for the visitor. The "Ganesha Mandir" was opened in 2006 as a haven for Asian elephants. Leipzig Zoo was the first where elephants were not presented behind bars and they have bred well. More tigers were born in Leipzig than in any other zoo in the world and the Leipzig Zoo is also highly engaged in the protection and breeding of the Indian jungle or sloth bear.
Mild creaturesSince the German Reunification, the Görlitz Zoo, which was voted Germany's best small zoo in 2008, has followed a new approach. While once the Indian rhesus monkey was the biggest attraction, rare domestic animals are now in the focus. But Central Asia has not been forgotten. In the so-called "Tibetan Village", sheep, goats, pigs, camels and yaks live in farm houses modeled after originals from Tibet. Most popular are also the red pandas which feel very much at home in the gorge that forms a natural setting for the zoo.
Almost natureThe Moritzburg Game Enclosure goes back to 1694 when Elector Johann Georg IV built an enclosure for keeping game which was released for hunts conducted from nearby Moritzburg Castle. Today, more than 30 local species live in a natural habitat. In 2009, a large compound for wolves was created, a species which has re-established itself in Saxony in the last few years. A climbing crag next to the game enclosure offers additional entertainment.