The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. Despite being the work of one man, Salman Khan, this 1600+ video library is the most-used educational video resource as measured by YouTube video views per day and unique users per month. We are complementing this ever-growing library with user-paced exercises–developed as an open source project–allowing the Khan Academy to become the free classroom for the World. Learn more about the Khan Academy and Salman Khan…

http://www.khanacademy.org/

“We feel that opening this world of access to the rich intellectual resource of a public university is core to what we do,” he said. “Anyone around the world, whether a taxi driver in London or budding computer engineer in Africa, can tune in.”

Students who take all or part of their classes online perform better, on average, than those who complete the same courses only in a traditional classroom, according to a meta-analysis – or a study of studies – released earlier this year by SRI International.

…

Among a field crowded with exalted institutions, Khan Academy stood out enough to be named as one of three laureates in the education category of this year’s Tech Awards, organized by the Tech Museum in San Jose.

Read more.

Wow Europe… just wow, you take the creme and cherry on Islamophobia.

A right-wing Austrian political party’s published a flash game in which the countryside is overrun with minarets and mosques and players must stop their construction. Because nationalism and xenophobia’s so much more fun when it’s in the German language!

Moschee Baba (“Bye-Bye Mosque”) is a minute-long, shooting-gallery type game in which a stop sign is clicked on a minaret, mosque, or muezzin (the guys who sound the morning calls to prayer). It’s a political ad for the Freedom Party in the Styrian province; regional elections are coming at the end of the month.

No one’s killed and nothing’s destroyed in the game, but its tone is pretty hateful and paranoid and it’s pissed off political opponents but good. Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Muslim community have demanded the game’s removal and an investigation for “incitement.”

The game is, of course, a gross caricature of the reality of the situation in Austria. Only four mosques with a visible minaret exist in the country. None are in Styria, whose population is 1.2 percent Muslim.

After the game ends, it serves players with a push poll, asking if there should be a ban on minaret construction, wearing of burqas, niqabs or other Islamic garments, and if Muslims should sign some oath accepting Austrian law’s primacy over the Koran. Fun stuff.

Read more.

Source.

The 23-year-old Khan (23-1, 17 knockouts), a former Olympic silver medalist of Pakistani descent, left for Pakistan early on Monday but already had been raising awareness concerning the flooding disaster that rages on in Pakistan.

“You know, I’m going to go over to Pakistan and show my support. My parents came over from Pakistan. They were born there. I was born in England. But still, I have my roots. I got family there, and plenty of relatives there. My mom just came back from visiting there,” Khan told FanHouse during a recent interview.

“Six weeks ago, I was in Pakistan just before the weather kicked in the floods kicked in. I left just before that. I was in America when the floods happened, and I saw lots of live links to what was going on on news stations,” said Khan. “It’s sad to see over 2,000 people have died in this disaster, and over 15 million people have been affected.”

…

“This disaster, compared to the Pakistan earthquake about two years ago, and the Haiti disaster and also the tsunami in Thailand, if you could put all of those three together, the floods in Pakistan are as bad or worse than those,” said Khan.

“In Pakistan, it’s a real shame because it seems like it’s on its last legs,” said Khan. “It seems to me that they really need help. I’m not a politician, and I like to stay out of politics, but there are a lot of things that need improving in that country. This is a wake up call for Pakistan.”

Source.

Here’s a great article drawing parallels between the USA’s recent bout of Islamophobia and the xenophobia concerning [American] Japanese during World War II. It’s worth a look.

AN interesting article by ILLUME caught my eye: China’s Female Imams

I have heard of Morocco also training female Imams. And Turkey and China having female only masjids but this is a first. I’ve heard rumors that someone is making a movie about female Imams.

30 Mosques in 30 States is Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq’s Ramadan road trip across the United States.

Beginning August 11 in New York City, the two will spend each night of Ramadan at a different mosque in 30 states around the country. The two’s 12,000 mile route will essentially take them on an outline of the entire country and conclude in Dearborn, Michigan – home to one of the largest concentrations of Muslims in the country.

Muslims for the month of Ramadan are required to fast, going without food or drink from sunrise to sunset. There are an estimated 7 million Muslims living in the United States that come from a wide mix of ethnic backgrounds including African Americans, South and East Asians, Arabs and East Africans.

Each day during Ramadan, Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq will visit a different state and blog about the experience each night, highlighting stories about the people they’ve met, the mosque they prayed in and of course the tasty cuisines each place has to offer.

Seems like the news is being overwhelmed with Islam in America. Here are few links:

Public Remains Conflicted Over Islam – Pew Research Center

Muslim cab driver slashed by upstate New York man because of his religion, police say

Muslim Americans Are Also Dying for America – The Daily Beast

So disturbing: Rent-This-Missile Ad Agency Donates Two ‘Missiles’ To Protest Against Manhattan Mosque http://tpm.ly/9xfwuw

Battles Around Nation Over Proposed Mosques – NYTimes.com

The Daily Show’s Profile of a Bigoted Anti-Muslim Leader

Jon Stewart’s brilliance continues to shine. On the so-called “Ground Zero” Mosque: http://bit.ly/a7rj5i

The Parent Company Trap – The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – 08/23/2010 – Video Clip | Comedy Central

The Onion:Man Already Knows Everything He Needs To Know About Muslims

Second anti-Muslim Hate Crime in 24 Hours | loonwatch.com

Burn a Qur’an Day Fails Miserably – Maniac Muslim

CNN: What made you decide to start taking pictures of Muslims instead of rock stars?

Peter Sanders: I didn’t just become a completely different person. I’m still that same person that did all that stuff in the ’60s, it’s just that my point of reference slightly changed.

I still listen to Dylan and he’s still an inspiration to me, I just found that photographing Muslims was slightly more interesting because they came from a world that I could only aspire too — people who spend their lives in prayer, study and worship.

“Fordson” is a feature length documentary film that follows four talented high school football players from Dearborn Michigan as they gear up for their big senior year rivalry game during the last ten days of Ramadan, a month when Muslims traditionally fast every day from sunrise to sundown.

The story is set against the backdrop of the stunningly beautiful Fordson High School, a public high school built by Henry Ford in 1922, which was once all white, but now boasts a 98% Arab population. As our team readies itself to play its affluent, cross town rival, we unearth the adversity faced by a community that is desperately holding onto its Islamic faith and trying to gain acceptance from their fellow U.S. citizens in post 9-11 America.

Through the eyes of the team, their coaches, and their fans, we get an unprecedented glimpse inside the lives of a community that is home to the largest concentration of Arabs in any city outside of the Middle East, and their determination to hold on to the American Dream.

You can contact the producers at fordsonthemovie@gmail.com

There’s a  new site called Ramadaning.

A blurb from their website: