Asian Games - and so it begins . . .

The 15th Asian Games is being held in Doha. Preseumably this is the second largest games after the Olympics and the Government is hoping that a successful event here will be a springboard for getting the 2016 Summer Olympics. The venues are finished and the athletes are starting to come in. The official opening ceremony is this Friday but some of the events have started already. The other night I went to the new Basketball hall to watch the game. Tickets are only QR5 ($1.35 US) so really, who cares who's playing at that price. The game turned out to be Kuwait vs Kazakhstan. For the record none of the Kazakhstanis looked like Borat ;)

Sadly if you don't count the official Games people there were maybe 30-40 spectators, and the venue holds around 800+ so needless to say the stands were empty. I hope the TV crews weren't showing too many crowd shots but if they were I was probably in them - I went with 4 other guys so the five of us made up the most densely-packed area of seating. Maybe I was on TV all over Kazakhstan!

It was a good game up until the 4th quarter, Kuwait even led by 3pts at one stage but in the end Kazakhs but it in overdrive and won 100-76.

I've already got tickets lined up for events over the next two weeks so it should be fun. With tickets going for QR5 to QR10 I'm trying to see as much as I can. Stop back here for updates.

It rained!

I have been here over 6 months and had yet to see rain. None. Not a drop. In fact it was rare to even have a cloudy day, in the summer sandstorms were more common than boring-old clouds. But now the weather is getting cooler (ie under 30C) and for the first time since I arrived it rained.

Not a fierce downpour or anything, more like a 2-hour Vancouver drizzle, but as soon as someone noticed everyone in the office went up to the windows to see it.

I'll wait and see what happens in a few days, maybe the desert will start blooming like you see in National Geographic photos. We'll see.

So what do you say to someone when . . .

A while back work arranged for some of us to have Arabic lessons, provided by the Qatar Centre for the Presentation of Islam. I've always wanted to learn Arabic so I attended the classes, which were taught by a nice Iraqi gentlemen. Now, when you get free lessons from a place called the Qatar Centre for the Presentation of Islam, needless to say you shouldn't be too surprised if you get some discussion about Islam mixed into the class. In the end it turned out to be about 50% arabic and 50% Islam discussions. Now after a while I found the Islam part more interesting, after all how often does one get the opportunity to pitch questions on Islam to a Muslim without him getting upset? We discussed all sorts of things: why two women's testimonies = one man's testimony in court (and for witnessing contracts), vegetarianism, styles of dress, why everyone in Qatar has massive homes and new cars when the Qur'an says to live modestly, first-cousin marriages, etc. Our teacher was always pleasant and tried to answer everything as best he could. The lessons ended right before Ramadan, and we hoped that we could get another class organized after the Eid holidays.

Recently we contacted him to see if he could give another lesson. He couldn't right now, here was the key part of the response:

"I am so sorry for not contacting you for a long time due to the hard conditions I am passing in both on the personal and family levels. I lost two of my family members and two of my relatives in one month. Most of my family members and relatives have fled their residences to other safer places, inside and outside Iraq . . ."

Um. Wow. What can I say in response to that? Seriously, four relatives dead within a month! He didn't provide details as to what exactly happened but did insinuate later on that it involved US troops. His relatives lived in Ramadi, an almost purely Sunni city, and doesn't experience much Shiite vs Sunni violence like in Baghdad. Ramadi is also one of the most conflict-torn cities, with daily attacks and gun battles by insurgents against US soldiers. Maybe they got caught in a cross-fire or hit by a stray shell/grenade, who knows?

Responding to that email was hard, really hard. They don't make Hallmark cards that sympathise with having relatives killed during a war y'know. I won't post my response, but after many hours of wracking my brains I just replied about how hard it was to respond and why, and to offer support.

By the way this post isn't about my feelings on the Iraq War, it's about a personal tragedy. I couldn't imagine what it would be like if members of my family were killed in some kind of conflict. It would tear me apart.

A similar experience happened a few months ago when the Lebanese manager at my compound and I watched Beirut getting bombed a few months ago. His wife and kids were still there and there was nothing he could do but watch his city being destroyed, and hoping that the bombs didn't hit his home. Every day he just sat at the TV and watched. For me it was just surreal. I tried to picture what it would be like if Vancouver was being bombed while I could do nothing but sit there and watch it on TV but I couldn't - I just couldn't imagine what that would be like for me to go through that. (BTW in the end his family was fine and as soon as the bombing stopped they moved to Doha).

So last night I went out with some friends to a dessert buffet at the Ritz. I originally declined because I'm trying to shed a few pounds but you know what - you only live once and for all you know it could go to hell the next day. So I went and had a great time, and will hit the treadmill more over the next few days to work it off instead. Life's too short to count calories.

Aljazeera english broadcast started today

Today a new global TV news station debuted - Aljazeera (in English). It started at 3:00pm Doha time and most of the office was by a TV to watch the debut. The husband of one of my coworkers (and my neighbour) is an anchorman for Aljazeera so I think the office was caught up in the excitement of the launch.

Up until this point I was watching BBC World but it does get tiresome, 15 minutes of news at the top of the hour and then that's it for news - the same headlines will repeat, at the top of the hour, for the next 10-12 hours. I'm hopeful Aljazeera can do better than that. With four broadcast centers - Doha, London, Washington and Kuala Lumpur they should be able to shake things up. Already I saw a brief clip about life in Harare (Zimbabwe). I don't think BBC can get a story like that because Mugabe banned them from the country. More importantly I'm hoping to see different news than the cut-and-paste job from the American stations. Is it just me, or does ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN all show the exact same news stories?

Anyway if it's available in your area try to tune in and see if Aljazeera is a different kind of news channel.

The nature of jihad

A buddy and I attended a recent lecture hosted by Georgetown University on jihad by Dr. Shah-Kazemi (an Ismaili Muslim living in the UK). I have to confess a lot of it went over my head, it was definately an in-depth talk suited towards Islamic scholars and other acedemics but it was interesting enough. From what I could glean from it the Qur'an and other fundamental Islamic works outline codes of conduct for war and fighting enemies. He then discussed historical examples from Damascus and Algeria to show how it should be properly applied - these examples outlined that non-Muslims should be shown mercy, be treated with respect when captured, and how to fight those who are actually attacking you and not others unrelated to the conflict. Unfortunately it ran overtime so there wasn't enough time to discuss the obvious question - why then do many fundamentalists/extremists not apply it this way. There was a question by someone in the audience that pointed out that much of his talk was based on his interpretation of key passages and asked how he knows that his interpretation is the correct one, but his answer went over my head (e.g. "words resaonating on both a spititual and metaphysical plane" kind of lost me).

Anyway, fairly interesting lecture and I might try to look up his historical examples to see if I can find out more about them. It definately painted a picture that jihad should not be some mob form of extremist violence.

Snopes - a website everyone should use

Ever wonder if that "missing kid" email you received is true? Or if that shocking picture a friend forwarded is real or a photoshop job? The website to find out, and one of my favourite websites, is Snopes (www.snopes.com). Chances are that chain email or picture is already there, with an investigation to see if it is true or not. It is also a neat site for just surfing around the various lists of urban legends that they investigated (recent one: Hillary Clinton is not named after Sir Edmund Hillary of Mt. Everest fame). Back when I worked in Bermuda I would have to use snopes at least one a month to debunk some email circulating around the office.

So go to snopes, look around, then bookmark it and visit it everytime you wonder if an email or piece of trivia is on the level. You won't regret it.

Istanbul

Got back from Istanbul - what a great city! Temperature was comfortable, the sights were amazing (especially the Topapki Palace and the Hagia Sophia) and the food was good. Met some Irish folk in my hotel who were working in Saudi Arabia and we hung out together as one big group. One of them used to work in Istanbul so he spoke Turkish, which helped a lot. He also knew great restaurants to go to. Being Irish lots of drinking was also a must.

If you're ever in Istanbul be sure to try raki, a local drink similar to sambuca, and to do the ferry ride up the Bosphorous.

For those of you on my pictures distribution list I'll send the pics across in the next week or so. The pictures will show things better than I could describe them.

On Vacation

I'm off tomorrow morning for 4 days in Istanbul. I'll post about it once I return. That is, if I'm not bloated from eating too much Turkish Delight (which I love).

Iftar

During Ramadan a Muslim is not allowed to eat or drink anything throught the day so the meal to break the fast, called Iftar, is pretty important. Some Iftars can range from simple meals with family up to extravagant multi-hour banquets.

The local hotels all offer Iftar buffets and I got to check two out at the Intercontinental Hotel and at the Ritz Carleton. Both decorated their seating area like a uber-decked out Arabian tent (the Ritz was actually in a ballroom while the Intercon had set up a large pavillion on the beach). The decor was stunning with tapestries, rugs, ornate furniture etc. Both had lovely buffets with both Western and Arabic cuisine, as well as a shawarma station, but the Ritz went one step further with a pasta station, tempura station, and ice-cream station. There was so much food I couldn't even try everything.

Afterward I kicked back with a sheesha, also known in the West as a hookah. Sheesha smoking uses flavoured-tobaccos and while it is not something I wound not want to do often (it is still smoking tobacco and little better than smoking cigarettes) it does add embience to the setting. I tried mango-flavoured tobacco, grape, and apple. Mango had almost no flavour but the grape and apple were great. At both places it wasn't long before the "tent" got pretty smoky as over half the guests were smoking sheeshas.

It's a shame that currently Ramadan is in the hotter summer months. I think anyone visiting the region would have a wonderful time at an Iftar buffet but since the weather is too hot for touring around and seeing the sights (and all the restaurants are closed all day for Ramadan) tourists have limited options for things to do.

What's up with blogger.com?

Geez, I'm finally able to access the blog again. For some strange reason I couldn't log on for the last few days. It might have something to do with the computers at my compound's computer room; since everyone at the compound uses them they probably have a ton of junk on them affecting the performance. I'll see how it goes over the next few days.

Scientific Apologetics - part 1A

I took a quick look through the 27-page response to Qur'anic Embryology and most of the cited work is internet and usenet postings, as opposed to published research. Not that published research is needed to debunk proof like a sculpted piece of gum resembles an embryo. If anyone can find out more about the Needham and Needbeer paper let me know.

Interestingly enough the debunking of the Quran'ic Embryology paper also references a website, www.answering-islam.org, that apparantly has more articles challenging other "Science in the Qur'an" arguements - but my service provider will not allow me to access that website! Qatar has only one service provider and they block sites that are contentious, which usually means pornographic. I guess some sites critical of Islam are also blocked. When I go on vacation next I'll make sure to check this site out. Just on principle you should too! If my service provider won't let me look at it then it's must have something interesting on it. I think I'll tell everyone at the Bad Astronomy forum about it as well just so it gets more traffic.

That website again: www.answering-islam.org

Anyway much of the embryo debate seems to hinge on Professor Keith L. Moore and some statements and research he did back in the 1980s. The Needham paper cites a reference that apparantly Dr. Moore did not convert to Islam himself, which would be odd given that the Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam almost completely relies on his work for the embryo argument, so I wonder if anyone knows the full story. Apparantly he used to teach at the University of Toronto but I don't know if he is still there, and quick search of the UofT website wasn't helpful. If you know more about this please let me know.

Animal Shelters

First some sad news, the other day a coworker's cat got run over by a car. It was originally a scrawny stray that she started feeding and it soon won her heart, within a month she was taking it to the vet for checkups, got it a collar, and let it come into her condo. The cat gained weight, stopped being scared of people, and turend out to be a nice, friendly, happy cat. But one evening it climbed over a wall and went out to the street where a car hit it. My coworker was devastated. She takes some solace in that at least the cat's last few months were happy ones.

Coincidentally the next morning the Qatar Natural History Group, of which I'm a member, did a trip to the Qatar Animal Welfare Society (www.qaws.org) where we helped walk the many dogs they had at the shelter. I was surprised that there would be many dogs given that Muslims consider dogs unclean and tend not to have them as pets, but there were about 20 of them. Most of them were Salukis or Saluki-crosses, Salukis being one of the only breeds of dog that Arabs use. One of the people at the shelter told me that medium or large dogs are hard to find homes for since most foreigners live in apartments or condos. Small dogs usually get adopted within a few days. QAWS also has cats, a donkey (?) and a castrated bull (?!?). I get the feeling that the bull will be there for a while.

So if you want something to cheer you up, go to www.qaws.org click on Adopt, then Success Stories, for letters from people who adopted animals from the shelter and found themselves with a wonderful pet.

If you're thinking of getting a pet, please adopt one from an animal shelter rather than a pet store. And if you live in Qatar, please consider adopting one of their wonderful dogs or cats.

Critical Thinking News

Looks like Saudi Arabia is trying to crack down on astrology with an Imam declaring it "forbidden and is considered a form of magic".

I also liked the following: "Believing that a certain star can be the cause of happiness or misfortune is a superstition from the pre-Islamic age...," Hear, hear.

I just wish they wanted to ban it because astrology is nonsense, not because it is some kind of magic. It is not magical because there is nothing to it. Astrology doesn't work.

Scientific Apologetics - part 1

Firstly, I found a online version of the book that I was handed A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Understanding of Islam. You can find it at this website. The booklet is 74 pages of which only the last 30 actually discusses general concepts of islam, the beginning 40 pages focuses on the evidence "for the truth of islam".

So Chapter 1: "The Scientific Miracles in the Holy Qur'an" (isn't 'scientific miracle' a misnomer?)

We start off with the Qur'an discussing human embryonic development. This focuses on the following statement in the Qur'an (Surah 23:12-14)

"We created man from an extract of clay. Then We made him as a drop in a place of settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the drop in to an alaqah (leech, suspended thing, and blood clot), then We made the alaqah into a mudghah (chewed substance)."

So what's the connection to human embryonic development? In summary, booklet claims:
1) at a certain stage of development the human embryo resembles a leech
2) It is suspended in the womb of the mother
3) the external appearance of the embryo and its sacs is similar to that of a blood clot
4) (here's my favourite) if you take a piece of gum and chew it, the gum will look similar to an embryo in the mudghah stage. (complete with pictures comparing an embryo to a scuplted piece of gum with one set of teeth imprints to look like a spinal cord).

There is also a few quotes from Professor Keith L. Moore "one of the world's most prominent scientists in the fields of anatomy and embryology" supporting the idea that the Qur'an is the Word of God, I presume based on the above information.

Wow.

I'm not a biologist, though I do have a bachelor's degree in chemistry, and debunking is going to take a lot of work & research. Getting up to speed on the embryology claims alone might be tough. I figured I'd have to post this up on some skeptic bulletin boards, and maybe search talkorigins.org, to see if others could help out.

But low and behold someone has already done the work for me. A 27-page response titled "Quranic Embryology". It is an interesting read that counters a lot of the claims . . .

. . but then my joy on seeing this work turned a bit down. I'm going to have to spend some time checking the sources to see that it is on the level. Key givaway: the authors were Dr. Yusuf Needham and Dr. Butrus Needbeer. Needham and Needbeer!? Yeah, I'm sure that's their real names. Not suprisingly googling these names didn't turn up much else on them aside from this article. I figure these are just pennames but it does throw some suspicion on the work so a follow-up to the sources is definately needed.

I'll do some fact checking and let you know what I come up with. Meanwhile the Needbeer article is still worth checking out.

Scientific Apologetics

The other day I was handed an interesting booklet titled A Brief Illustrated Guide to Islam, which I found somewhat amusing because only a part of it is dedicated to explaining Islam. Instead much of it discusses the “Scientific Proof of the Qur’an”, basically pointing out things in the Qur’an that agree with current research, or the views of one or two scientists, and from this concluding that this is proof that the Qur’an is divine. I refer to such arguments as ‘scientific apologetics’, using science to try to support a faith-based position.

I don’t really have a problem with religion and religious beliefs. Most of humanity needs belief in a greater power to make their lives meaningful. Yes some people are atheists but I’m pretty sure that being an atheist isn’t for everyone. For many the comfort of religious belief is truly helpful. But when said religious beliefs try to cross the faith/science boundary that we run into problems.

Generally when someone uses scientific apologetics they open themselves up to a few problems:

1) Science cannot prove/disprove the divine. Science deals with empirical observations and evidence and is unable to answer questions relating to God/Allah/gods. Many scientists themselves are religious – since science does not investigate matters of faith or the divine generally there is no contradiction in someone having religious beliefs yet practicing science. Having a passage from scripture resemble some empirical observation or scientific hypothesis does not prove divinity any more than if some passage does not conform to a hypothesis disproves divinity. Scientific apologetics does not appear to realize this concept, which brings us to . . .

If one proposes that scripture agreeing with science = proof of divinity, does that mean if an item is found in the scripture that disagrees with science that it is now proven that the scripture is not divine? No believer in a particular religion would accept the latter of course. But you can’t have your cake and eat it to: agrees = divine, not agrees = also divine? Heads I win, tails you lose!

2) What if other scriptures from other religions also have passages that agree with science, does that mean they all must be divine? People using scientific apologetics tend to focus on their own religion and not apply the same methods to other religious books. As we’ll see over the next few posts, many religions (Christian, Islam, Hindu) have all sorts of things in their works that ‘agree’ with science. So if a Christian uses science to ‘prove’ that the Bible is true, they should also agree that the Hindu scriptures are true for the same reason. (They wouldn’t of course but it creates a logical inconsistency: why should one believe in Book X because it ‘agrees’ with science but not Book Y?)

3) Just because some passage or part of a scripture can be interpreted to agree with science does not de facto mean that everything in the scripture must therefore be correct and true. That is a logical fallacy, I think it’s analogous to a doctor looking at your ear and finding that since it is free of disease concluding that your whole body must be free of disease! It also runs into problems with #1 above. Some diehard believers try to get around this by accepting research that supports their scriptural interpretations while excluding anything that opposes it (and if it’s someone like a young-earth creationist, or a geocentrist, there’s a heck of a lot of research and evidence to ignore).

So that’s just some things to bear in mind as I spend the next few weeks going over the claims made in this Islamic booklet, as well as some claims made in other scriptures. It’ll be neat, I swear.

Horoscopes for cows

Yep, there's a news article from India about a university designing horoscopes for cows. When I saw the title of the article in a local newspaper I nearly fell over - but it's not what you think. Turns out the horoscopes have nothing to do with planet positions but instead its about predicting the animals future using DNA analysis. Great article with a misleading title - check it out.

Creationism part deux

Okay, creationism in Islam. Actually I had a tough time finding a lot of material, presumably most Islamic-creationist literature and websites would be in Arabic, which I can’t read, so it might be more prevalent than my English-language searches indicate.

Overall creationism, to the extent that it attacks science or denies evidence in favour of literal interpretation of scripture, does not appear to be too wide spread in the Islamic world. It does exist as there are some groups in Turkey that promote creationism, and I presume the same exists in more fundamentalist nations like Pakistan. But it appears to nowhere near as prevalent as in North America. A quick Google-news search didn’t find any recent articles (looks like everyone is still focusing on the Pope’s recent comments about Islam) so I guess the question is, why isn’t it more prevalent?

What is said about the issue in the Qur’an would be a major factor. While the Qur’an has much that is in common with the Bible (the virgin birth of Jesus for example) it does not go into the level of detail that Genesis does in terms of the creation of the world. The Bible has a detailed series of “A begat B who begat C . . .” and in North America there is a type of creationist called Young Earth Creationists who add up all the begats and thus determined that the maximum age of the Earth is something like 6,000 years, give or take a few thousand. This of course flies in the face of pretty much all of the sciences, as well as history, sociology, and other academic disciplines so YECs are pretty vocal in their anti-science stance. I think you have to go into pretty deep denial to wish away all of the evidence that shows that the Earth is older than 6,000 years - but they do it! Since the Qur’an lacks the detailed lineage in the Biblical Genesis, and I don’t think the Qur’an gives a specific age for the Universe, you don’t see the Islamic equivalent of YECs as there is no specific age to hang your hat on.

Generally Islamic creationism seems to focus on just attacking the theory of evolution, but rather than go into detail I’ll just link to a Wikipedia article on creationism in Islam, a good starting point in case you want to learn more. And of course there is always Talk Origins.

If I get a chance in the future to talk to an Islamic biologist I’ll ask them for their opinion on the issue and how widespread creationism and other anti-science thought exists in various parts of the Islamic world.

Creationism

Time for a bit of a rant on creationism. I’m not talking about the belief that a divine being created the universe and all life on it, anyone believing in God/Allah should believe that, I’m talking about people who’s interpretations of scripture are so literal that they deny any evidence that contradicts their interpretations, to the point of trying to undermine scientific research and education. These are the people I have an issue with!

Sadly creationism, or as they like to call it now - intelligent design, appears to be on the upswing in America, or at least the adherent followers are getting more noisy. Part of their tactics is to promote an either-or fallacy that you can’t be Christian and agree with the theory of evolution, that they are somehow mutually exclusive, and that only atheists/pagans/communists etc. ‘believe’ in evolution (believe is in quotes because in truth one doesn‘t believe in scientific theories like a religion - if further evidence comes along that disproves evolution in favour of another theory then science will move to that theory and march onward, not holding my breath that it‘ll happen though). In fact many Christian sects such as most Catholics and Anglicans have no problem with evolution, and many biologists are Christian which does not appear to impact their research into matters such as genetics. But Heaven forbid that a Biblical literalist might think that maybe, just maybe, that any evidence that goes against their beliefs might indicate that their interpretation of scripture is wrong. Heck no! The Bible is inerrant and how they interpret it must be right. If science comes out with evidence to the contrary then in their minds it means science is attacking the Bible itself. There seems to be an underlying arrogance to that.

Let me just say that science does not attempt, nor is it able, to prove or disprove a religion. Things like the existence of God are totally beyond scientific enquiry. Science deals with empirical observation, it can only look at things that is within our power to observe and study. No test of science can study God. The Bible isn’t in danger from science and hundreds of years of scientific study and achievement hasn’t made the world a bunch of roving atheists. Almost all scientists know this.

Scriptural literalists set themselves up for confrontation with science because of their inflexibility. Once they believe something due to their interpretation of scripture it is difficult for them to accept any evidence to the contrary. How do many of them deal with it if evidence appears? Denial is one way, grand conspiracies about scientists trying to undermine Christianity is another, taking quotes from famous scientists out of context is a favourite, or blatantly lying about scientific concepts to undermine science can occur sometimes as well.

So I’ll segway into one of my favourite websites, Talk Origins. Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the theory of evolution, false claims made by creationists, and other material on the war between science and religious dogma. The What’s New section is always worth checking out periodically - I especially love the summary of the monthly feedback, but if you ever come across creationist claims against evolution this is the first place you should go to investigate the truth behind the claim.

That said if you have access to a good library and are really interested in the topic be sure to check out the original source material. Talk Origins is good about listing references for their information. I sometimes get concerned when in internet forum debates people post things along the lines of “Talk Origins says this therefore it must be true”. That’s not ideal from a critical thinking perspective and I doubt the people who manage Talk Origins want their website to be seen as some kind of gospel. Part of being a good skeptic is a willingness to check sources even when you agree with what is being said.

What about creationism in Islam? I’ll get to that tomorrow . . .

Happy Ramadan!

Well Ramadan just started, one lunar month where the Muslims fast during the day, pray more often and have banquets/feasts at night. Because the start of Ramadan depends on when the Moon (in a certain phaase) is sighted locals can't give an exact date for when it starts - best they can do is +/- 1 day.

So we figured it would start on Saturday night so a bunch of people from work all met up at a bar around 8pm and just as I got there the bar announced that Ramadan had started, therefore no more drinks could be served. None. Zero. No more alcohol for the next 28 days. So my co-workers that had arrived a few minutes earlier managed were holding on to the last beer that they were gonna get at this bar. I tried calling the others who hadn't arrived yet to warn them but they didn't believe me! They thought I was just joking so showed up anyway. Surprise, no more liquor!

We called around and found one bar that was serving for one more hour so it was a mad dash to get there before they closed up. In the end we all got one or two drinks so the evening wasn't a total wash. Looks like parties at compounds if anyone wants drinks now.

Because during Ramadan Muslims are required to fast during the day (no food, no water, nothing) the Government has strict rules in place. No restaurants can be open, no eating in public (including in your car while driving). I've heard hotels keep a room out-of-sight open so that guests can eat something but otherwise their restaurants are closed. Even at the office we can't eat lunch at our desks, but the boss said that from 12-1 we could eat in one of the meeting rooms. I have to figure out what to bring for lunch now - I always ate out but since nothing is open I can't do that anymore. Oh well, just another interesting thing about life in the Gulf.

On the plus side our working hours are reduced during Ramadan. I get to go home at 3pm for the next month instead of 5. Yay!!

Ramadan Kareem everyone! (I hope I got that right).

Science behind the veil

I just happened to catch this interesting article in the local paper. I think it paints an interesting contrast in what many in the West think of the Middle East, and how it actually can be. A westerner would generally not expect the physics teachers to be women in abayas. Yes, women in Qatar are allowed to work.

I'm glad that Qatar appears to be taking science education seriously. It makes sense since most jobs are occuring in science and engineering (such as construction and petrochemical) that's where young Qataris should be focusing their educational efforts. A Qatari who gets a chemical engineering degree is all but guaranteed a nice job with one of the many petroleum companies.

Now people have to keep in mind that what happens in Qatar does not necessarily represent what happens everywhere else in the region. Saudi Arabia is right next door and while I've never been there it is definately a different world from Qatar. A lot more conservative, a lot greater wealth discrepancy between the rich and the poor. Bahrain, even though it is right next door, is also very different. Bahrain is a lot more relaxed than Qatar: lots of bars and nightclubs, locals can buy alcohol, pork is available at markets, and there appears to be a lot of young asian girls hanging out in the bars (even Lonely Planet notes that prostitution is big there).

Three countries, all muslimm, three very different societies.

[update 27 November 2011 -- pork is now available in Qatar, see my post of that date]