As-salamu alaykum, can you hear me? Can everyone hear me? Sorry. As-salamu alaykum everyone. Thank you all so much for coming out today on a Friday evening and thank you to the MCC and Tumenier especially for helping us to organize this special evening with you tonight. My name is Meira Nagas and I have the very distinct pleasure of serving as the Executive Director of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding or ISPU for short. We are a non-profit, non-partisan independent research organization and what we do is we conduct and we share research on critical issues facing American Muslims in this country. Our research generates data, much of which you'll see here tonight. We uncover successful solutions to some of our major community challenges and we amplify the voices of American Muslims through polling. We share this research through forums like these by gathering people together. We share our research through virtual needs through videos and other things, one of which you'll see here tonight. We share our research through writing op-eds with community leaders and with leaders at the highest levels of government. And all of this we do with the aim of injecting scholarly understanding and facts into the debates and challenges of our time. We're all here tonight I think because we care. We care about this election cycle and we understand how critical it is for our voices to be heard. The topic we're going to be talking about obviously is American Muslims and elections 2016 and I don't think I need to explain to anyone in this room why this is an important and timely topic. We've all seen how polarized this current election cycle has become. We've all seen and experienced the ramped up anti-Muslim rhetoric that's become sadly a staple of this election cycle and we started to see the dangerous repercussions of this rhetoric on everyday people, men, women and children. And I think we're all asking ourselves what can we do? We're all asking ourselves how can we deal with this situation. So tonight we're going to do a couple of things. ISPU and our director of research will share our groundbreaking survey of American Muslims and other faith groups across America. This survey provides an evidence-based portrait of the American Muslim community and very important data points for educating both ourselves and others. Then we're going to hear from the Council on American Islamic Relations who's going to talk about civic engagement and how to respond to the current electoral climate. And then we'll hear from ING who'll talk about the role of education as a response to all that is going on as well as some steps to address bullying in schools. So without further ado I want to introduce you to our three panelists tonight. The first panelist we'll hear from is Dalia Mokahed. She's ISPU's director of research where she leads all of our organization's pioneering research and thought leadership programs on American Muslims. She's the former executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies where she led the analysis of surveys of communities worldwide, of Muslim communities worldwide. She's the co-author of the book Who Speaks for Islam?  And back in 2009 she was appointed to the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Many of you probably have seen her TED Talk and her appearances on The Daily Show and other news outlets. So I'm going to let Dalia go first and I'll introduce the other panelists as they come up. Thank you. I promise you this is not boring but I want to start before I jump into our poll of American Muslims with how we came to this data. So as Mira said this election cycle has been played with discussion about American Muslims. American Muslims are actually at the heart of this election cycle. The most talked about issue and we're one percent of the population. But what's missing oftentimes even though we are the most discussed topic, the most discussed group is we very rarely hear directly from American Muslims. We are the topic of discussion but rarely participants in that discussion. So we wanted to address this gaping need and wanted to contribute to our democracy by giving the public a direct access to what American Muslims really think. Now to do that if you're familiar with survey research you would know that polling a group that is only one percent of the population is extremely difficult. It's extremely difficult to get a representative sample. So we set out to find the country's top methodologists on polling minority groups. Especially minority groups that don't show up in the census right because unlike ethnic groups you know religion is not in the census. So we found at David Dotwin. Dr. David Dotwin is the country's leading methodologist on how to poll Jewish Americans. And we asked him to be the chief methodologist on this study how to poll American Muslims. Very similar challenges both groups about one to two percent of the population and you you can't find them by using our census data. So we started out there and we came we we gathered a sample representative national sample of American Muslims of 550 participants. We didn't just want to poll American Muslims we also wanted to poll other faith communities in America to give our data context to not just study American Muslims as a an isolated specimen but to actually place them within their country's religious context. So we also polled American Jews, American Catholics and American Protestants. Our field date so you're going to ask when did you ask these questions. I'm going to tell you right up. January 18th to the 30th earlier this year so this is from January this year. If you're interested in more about the methodology you can read all about it on our website. So the first thing to to know about American Muslims is how diverse we are. In fact American Muslims are the only faith community in America with no majority race. We are about equal portions white or self self-identified as white, Arab, Asian and African American. Another thing to notice about this in addition to the fact that we are the only faith community with no majority race is that the percentage of us that identify as Latino or Hispanic has grown has actually doubled in the last 10 years and it is the fastest growing community in in our in our American Alma. Really interesting thing about this graph is this is a lot this is really what America is going to look like in 2050 or earlier. American Muslims are dealing with the challenges and opportunities of diversity that the entire country will actually be dealing with in a few decades and that's an that's an exciting opportunity to contribute solutions to a national challenge that the country will be will be looking at in in a few days. American Muslims are also the youngest by far the youngest faith community in the United States and that's one reason of many that the projection is that Muslims will be the second largest religious community by the year 2050. Now where do American Muslims land on the political spectrum? Who are they voting for in this election season? The top candidate among American Muslims this is again a a this is a representative sample all American Muslims was actually Hillary Clinton 40 favored Hillary Clinton followed by Bernie Sanders. Now I I am in San Francisco or the Bay Area and everyone is shocked completely shocked by this data right because that's not what you or anyone you know looks like but it is when you look at the national landscape actually where Muslims land now if you do look at young Muslims they they do favor Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton by quite a large margin but overall this is what it looks like it is interesting to know that the only woman candidate has her greatest popularity among Muslims right so that's an interesting response to people who think that Muslims are uncomfortable with female leadership. The other thing to know is that Bernie Sanders a Jew is as popular among Muslims as he is among Jews. You know in terms of political affiliation Muslims are they lean Democrat Muslims look a lot like Jewish Americans actually politically and as you'll see later look a lot more like Protestants religiously. So only 6% of Muslims identify as Republicans but you'll also notice that Muslims are the most likely faith community to identify as independence and what this means is that essentially Muslims are voting a lot of times on policies not based on partisanship and they are a community that if if the Republican Party weren't so you know negative toward the community could actually win a lot of people over because independence really can go either way and many Muslim independents also identify ideologically as conservatives and would maybe actually identify as Republicans had the rhetoric not turned so negative. Now what are the priorities of this community? So this question gets asked all the time by pollsters in fact it's one of the oldest questions that's been asked by by polling companies in America and basically asks what are the political what are the priorities that the government should have? What should the government focus on? When you ask Muslims this question what should the next president be focused on the first thing the most uh the most mentioned thing is the economy and jobs. So Muslims are focused on their everyday needs their economic needs and economic security is an issue among Muslims. The second most mentioned thing and it is a distant second actually it's it's bigotry and civil rights not surprisingly. Now what you'll notice here is how similar Muslims are to the broader African American community this isn't African American Muslims this African Americans generally. There are political priorities of the Muslim community as a whole and the African American community as a whole is almost identical with economy and jobs is number one with civil liberties coming up close behind and education as number three the top three priorities are actually identical it's just that Muslims also include immigration African Americans don't have that that's actually the really only difference. Interesting difference between Muslims and and the other faith communities we poll is that Muslims do not have national security as a top priority. Now a lot of people will look at that and say oh Muslims are soft on terrorism but a couple things is Muslims look a lot like Democrats and also look a lot like African Americans all three groups are not do not mention national security as one of their top priorities what you're really looking at here is a map of people's fears anytime you ask this and it changes with time it's not always like this it's a map of what people are thinking about what they're afraid of for Muslims for African Americans for many Democrats they're focused on their economic security and they're focused on their kids education they're focused on bigotry and civil rights that is their everyday worry it is not actually that they're going to be the victim of a terrorist attack because rationally that is almost not even within the realm of possibilities you are more likely to die of furniture falling on you literally than terrorist attacks so this is actually more rational reflection of what people should be afraid of and yet on the other side with the other faith communities national security is a huge issue and that is a reflection of people's fears not a reflection of people's priorities around whether or not they want the country to be safe this helps explain where why big treat and and civil rights is a concern for Muslims Muslims are the most likely faith community to report having experienced some level of religious discrimination in the last year far exceeding even Jewish Americans who tend to be the ones that the FBI will tell you are the most likely to experience a hate crime now that may be because our community sell them reports them but when you actually ask people have the experience discrimination Muslims far far exceed any other community in that regard now who is experiencing the most discrimination within our community the most likely groups within our community to experience to say the experience of discrimination are women young people and Muslims without a college education so when you think about this this is the most vulnerable among us are you most likely to say that they experience some level of discrimination now what does discrimination do this is a question we had as researchers how does it impact someone's other views how does it impact their their identity their religiosity etc and we found that actually it makes almost no difference except on two things people will experience regular discrimination are less likely to be optimistic about the country's direction that's not surprising but surprising to us is that people who experience Muslims who experience regular discrimination are more likely to actually be engaged in their community so it is linked with less optimism but more activism now what about Muslims in general and how they compare to other people in terms of satisfaction with the way things are going in this country believe it or not Muslims are the most optimistic faith community in America they are the most likely to think to say that they they think that the way things are going in this country is is positive and they are by far the most likely to approve of president Obama and it's or like this question is likely a response to how Obama how the Obama administration is running the country and Muslims tend to approve of the president's performance this is not simply that Muslims are always happy with the government under president Bush for example his approval rating among Muslims was seven percent compared to here 78 percent for Obama now the heart of the issue political engagement now does does this this optimism and approval of the president translated to political engagement yes and no Muslims the good news first which is that Muslims are as likely as Jews to say to report volunteering in their community to report cooperating with other people to solve a problem in their neighborhood so civic engagement or volunteerism is on par with other people but unfortunately bad news is that Muslims are far less likely to be registered to vote they're contributing but they are not having as much of a say 60 percent of Muslims are registered to vote these are 60 percent of eligible voters so we didn't we actually ask people if they were citizens and then only ask the citizens this question 60 percent of eligible voters are registered to vote however 85 percent plan to vote okay so there's a problem here right we have 25 percent who want to vote but haven't gotten around to it and we call this 25 percent are inshallah voters these really this group the 25 percent who want to vote but haven't gotten around to registering are where I believe we have to put 100 percent of our energy because they're they're easy they're an easy you know nudge and and we'll get them there we should have we should have more registration drives I think every single Friday until the election to get that 25 percent completely registered the 15 percent that don't want to vote they're a completely different category a lot of times we focus on them they're actually not who we need to focus on now they're a long-term focus but they cannot be where we waste our time now because there's so many that actually want to vote but just need a nudge so why do people want to vote well we asked that question and they said things like civic duty I want to make a difference I I want to make sure that a certain candidate is not elected and it's it's an important right that they cherish why don't people want to vote the people who don't want to vote what did they say they said they don't think it counts or matters they don't like anyone running a lot of people say that and the issues they care about are not represented by anyone running now what you don't find here and we always look at what we expect to find and don't find what I expected to find is it's hard to vote that's why I don't want to vote I'm not going to vote because it's against my religion nobody said that literally nobody said that now I'm not saying that this doesn't exist but it is a lot lot less prevalent than it used to be and and more than we thought so the issue is not let's convince people it's head end to vote it's not really the issue at all what it's with the actually if you want to get people to vote that are not wanting to vote it's you convince them it counts you convince them it makes a difference and you convince them that you know even if the the candidates aren't perfect that getting out there and and making their voice heard is important one thing that actually correlates with more civic engagement which is really important we're here at mosque is frequent mosque attendance so people who go to mosques once a week or more are more likely to volunteer to be civically engaged to be registered to vote and also to plan to vote so mosques in america are a a force for moderation they're a force for a greater commitment to the system that that a group like ices would want to destroy it's a direct uh it's a direct contradiction to what has been said about mosques in this election okay so how many people go to mosques i hear this number thrown around all over the place only two percent muslims go to mosques or only two you know 10 percent muslims go to mosques it's just not true okay 42 percent of muslims say they go to a mosque once a week or more it's on par with the protestants muslims and protestants look identical in terms of their religious patterns i will also mention one very important point which is when you look at that 42 percent that go to a mosque frequently and you break it down by gender men and women they are almost the same virtually identical and so if that is the case if men and women are attending mosques at the same rate shouldn't our resources space allocation and programming reflect that reality another exciting slide should your religion be a part of american law okay the question on sharia and the accusations from sharia well here's here's actually what the data says so again we didn't just ask this of muslims we asked this across the board of dews catholics protestants and muslims and the group most likely to say that they think their religion should be american law or protestants followed by muslims the majority of muslims say they don't think their religion should be a part of american law but there isn't a minority less than protestants but still there that thinks it should be a part of american law lots of ways to interpret this but it's important to compare it to protestants a very large percentage more population they tend to be the ones that engage policy from a religious framework and and nobody freaks out about it it's normal right you can say i know it's my religious conviction that certain things are are wrong and therefore they're pushing for them to be illegal muslims actually don't do that it's it's not their uh you know we don't have the banner of sort of these kinds of things but when you ask most muslims who are politically active and they're working in social justice spaces they are coming at it from a you know a point of religious conviction when you look at muslim um priorities political priorities there there were some people in other religious communities that said you know morality muslims actually never mentioned that they're talking about jobs they're talking about education they're talking about civil liberties all of these things are from the perspective of you know muslims they're working on these things from a vantage point of Islam of an Islamic you know sort of liberation theology so i think this is important data as a starting point for the conversation rather than denying the idea that muslims would want to see their ethical framework reflected in their country's laws we just need to put it in the proper context with the rest of the country now the other you know one of the most common um refrains during this this election cycle and it's kind of been happening forever is this idea that being a muslim and being an american are contradictions that you have to choose you know so ben karson said something like you know muslim has to to denounce their faith in order to be president of the united states so we wanted to test this idea is a muslim identity and an american identity compatible or not so we asked everyone to tell us how strong they identify with their faith and how strong they identify with the united states as their country and this was the the results most people identify strongly with both their faith and their their country and muslims are no different in terms of um you know comparing to other big communities but what was really interesting is we looked at these two variables and how they relate to each other meaning is a strong religious identity is that linked to a weak american identity or the other way around and the answer is actually somewhat surprising what we thought is that muslims with a strong religious identity were actually far more likely to have a strong american identity than muslims with a weak religious identity that they not only not contradictions but they're actually mutually reinforcing uh the final topic that we are going to focus on is use of violence okay this is very important incredibly important data in light of this last horrific attack that we are just finding out about yesterday and today so we asked this question of every american or of every big community we pulled we asked this some people think that for the military now notice the wording of both the military to target and kill civilians is sometimes justified while others think that this kind of violence is never justified what is your opinion and then you could say never sometimes depends don't know refused okay muslims are the only community that have a majority 65 percent who say is never justified to target and kill civilians by the military everyone else it's just it's actually minority all right then we ask the same question the only difference is instead of military we said an individual or small group so the first question asked about a war crime this is actually the definition of war crime targeting civilians by military the second is basically terrorism as it's generally defined what you find is that muslims are as likely as anyone else to denounce quote terrorism and more likely to denounce war crimes why is this important the reason that's important is because there is there is a lot of conversation right now again about the propensity for muslims to sympathize with violence because of this toward the attack that we just saw and this kind of research in addition to to other similar research is is a way to respond to fear with facts so just to summarize muslims lead democratic they are engaged in their community but less politically they are pious and patriotic at the same time muslims reject attacks on civilians at least as much as anyone else and mosque attendance is linked to civic engagement not radicalization and finally muslims are weary of discrimination but they're still optimistic and you can read all about it out on our website at icpu.org forward slash poll all right thank you for your attention thank you dahlia our next speaker is going to be zahra gulu she is a civil rights attorney and the executive director of the san francisco bay area chapter of the council on american Islamic relations also known as care um she's frequently seen at mosques and universities facilitating trainings and workshops as part of care's grassroots efforts to empower the americans on community and build bridges with allies on civil rights issues she also provides direct legal services for victims of law enforcement uh targeting anisonophobia she's the recipient uh in 2014 of the national lawyer skills san francisco bay area chapters unsung hero award and in 2013 recipient of the south asian bar association of northern california's trailblazer award zahra so i thought about asking for a show of hands to see how many people here are registered to vote but i don't want to embarrass the people that aren't the inshallah voters and so i won't ask but if you aren't you can register today online without printing or postage it's something that really takes just a couple of minutes to do instead i'll tell you a story a couple of years ago once again the apartheid state of israel was bombing palestine and every time this happens we feel like it's worse than the last time but i remember at our office we were moved to action and we don't engage in a lot of palestine work except where there's a civic engagement opportunity where we can say to our fellow american muslims this is how we're going to have an impact because so often we'll live here from people whether it's the attack in france the situation in turkey the ongoing in my time at care i come across many instances people who want to talk to city council about foreign policy people who want to talk to state legislators about federal issues right like this confusion of who sets zoning restrictions in place just a couple of days ago many of you are following the news of what's happening with the state board of education and the edits to textbooks and really the islamophobic edits to textbooks what's frightening is that two years ago the legislation was passed in california that opened the path to that effort and most muslim community members were absent from that discussion we didn't oppose that legislation and even then looking at the organizing that happened to oppose the edits it was a valiant effort and they made a lot of success there's been progress they've had victories they've gotten some of the edits fixed but people are surprised that this is happening right and so if we're not paying attention if we're not registering to vote if our elected officials don't know who we are this kind of thing continues to happen something that i'll say frequently is that i know even for me as an anti-islamophobia activist i think of islamophobia as something that happens in tennessee and florida and arkansas somewhere not here but those textbook edits that are being considered in sacramento would open the pathway to some really horrible curriculum in our state so what to do dalia talked about the inshallah voters and about the importance of registering to vote wanted to review some basics as well as some possible action items the first is i've mentioned if you're here and you're not registered to vote get registered to vote if you are over the age of 18 if you will turn 18 in time for the election if you have recently become a us citizen and or if you have moved since the last election register to vote if you need to change your party register to vote if you haven't been getting election mail register to vote if it's been a few years since you voted i tell people be safe and register to vote right like you don't want to show up on election day and find out that you couldn't register to vote the second thing is to tell other people to vote some of my early activism before even working in the muslim community was in moving young people to vote moving college students to vote 17 year olds who are turning 18 19 year olds who felt disenfranchised with the system already to move them to vote and one of the things that we learned there that applies to minority communities also is that my friends telling me to register to vote is far more impactful than zahra or dalya or maha telling people to register to vote because at best we're public speakers we're trainers we're randoms that you see once in a while but when i call my parents and tell them i registered to vote they're going to listen when i sit with my brother at dinner and i say no fill out the form on your phone right now while we wait for dessert to come out he's going to get registered to vote and so it's not enough that you're registered tell other people make it a social thing don't pressure them don't shame them i'm actually not in the camp that believes that we should shame people who choose not to register to vote if that is their chosen method of civic engagement if they are protesting in that way if they are taking that energy and putting it into action elsewhere but that's not what i find when i talk to people who aren't registered if they're not registered it's because they don't care they're over the system they don't feel like they can have an impact and that's different those are the people that we want to talk to but it can't just be election or conversation also so yes we're having this panel today we're going to like register voters at dozens of massages for the next couple of months but if our advocacy ends the day after elections what was it all for we've actually heard from elected officials that the muslim community can sometimes be one of the easiest to appeal to because they can move us to vote they can take our money and we don't show up the day afterwards to hold them accountable we've actually had elected officials say we voted for xyz legislation because we didn't hear from any muslims so we assumed that there was no opposition which is a really frightening concept right is that even when we do show up if it ends on election day what was the point this has been a concern not just for our community but for others candidates make promises but if no one says well are you going to deliver on that promise if no one follows up and says you didn't close one Hanabo you didn't lower college tuition you didn't do all of these things you promised then i gave away my vote and so when you're thinking about civic engagement when you're recruiting other people to get involved don't just think between now and november i'm really interested in what happens in january for those that were supporting a really activist candidate a couple of months ago what was really inspiring for me was to see that there was a commitment that not only are we going to support these candidates we're going to support them after their elective and if they don't do what they're what they promised we're going to protest them just because i voted for you today doesn't mean i can't hold you accountable it's not just about voting also so if all i'm giving is my vote i would say that that's the least i can do that is the absolute least it is the bare minimum i just had a conversation with some students who are not yet 18 and they said what can i do volunteering with a campaign as visible muslims is so important because one you're building a relationship with a candidate and start very local everyone that eventually runs for senate served in a local office prior so yes it might be really difficult to drive to sacramento every day and volunteer in a campaign out there it might be difficult to go to the state board of education meeting in person or muslim day at the capital or things like that i'm not saying you shouldn't you absolutely should and i'm so proud of the muslims who did drive out to sacramento yesterday and spent two hours each way and a full work day in sacramento saying we want to be heard but volunteering with a local campaign is how you develop a relationship when you think about people who are friends with high-ranking elected officials those aren't relationships that were built after i won the seat for congress or after i was sworn in as a senator i knew you when i ran for school board right like you put in countless hours when i ran for school board you doorknocked for me in your local neighborhood you wrote me a check on a regular basis and you stayed in touch and so actually getting involved with the campaign is so important they remember that i would i remember the volunteers that helped us put together our dinners i remember the volunteers that will put in the extra hours right that's true for a non-profit organization that's going to be true also for candidates and those are people that are moving up so if you have their ear now you maintain it and you keep it that's true also i mentioned the high school students so i will get questions for people who are non-citizens um and who are under the age of 18 how how can i make a difference what can i do you can register other people to vote you can mobilize them to vote you can volunteer in a campaign you don't have to be a citizen or even of voting age to volunteer on a campaign right if you can't give money to a campaign directly either because you can't afford it or because you're not a u.s citizen you can encourage others to give money to a campaign i've given up on chasing the unicorn of a unified muslim vote we're not all going to agree on a candidate which is why the result of which candidates we're supporting are so astounding because i can't believe it but i get that like we're in the liberal bane area we're not going to agree we can't agree on when we start Ramadan we can't agree on when we celebrate either how many republics we're not going to agree on who the next u.s president should be but what we can agree on is that if i show up as a visible muslim as someone who either looks muslim or acts muslim right i want to be careful about using the term visible muslim if i show up as someone who identifies as muslim in whatever way that means for me and i'm involved in the civic process and we've got a few people on each local campaign including the ones that are running against each other that's a good thing that is a very good thing because they can remember that let them fight over our votes some of you may be following the district 17 race in the south bay where two candidates are competing for the muslim vote they're reaching out to muslim leaders they're trying to visit as many mosques as possible i don't think we're going to agree on which one works and i think it's great that there's muslim vote campaigns i will stop there i'm most excited about the q&a part of this discussion thank you so much our third panelist is maha el kanadi she is the chief executive officer of the islamic networks group um the author of training handbooks on average for american muslims as well as training seminars for public institutions on developing cultural competency with the american muslim community she's a senior fellow of the american leadership forum and was recently named by the san jose business journal as one of silicon valley's women of influence thank you ma'am i got right into it because um we only have about eight minutes um so we're going to sort of take a a left turn here because we're not going to i'm not going to talk about local engagement in the same way that denia and zahra just uh just spoke about i'm going to talk about a different kind of political engagement and that is civic engagement particularly engagement in our school system um the organization for those of you that may not be familiar with it which doesn't surprise me at all because most of our work is actually not within the muslim community it's outside we work primarily with schools with law enforcement agencies with health care facilities with corporations our presenters are from the muslim community but we don't really see us we don't really publicize because of the sensitive nature of the work that we do so i would be surprised that all uh sisters and brothers if you didn't know about this organization we've been around for 23 years we have affiliates in 22 states and our mission is what you see there encounter prejudice and discrimination i always use the iceberg as a way to describe the work that we do because i think it's important for you to understand what we do we're strictly education and interfaith engagement and i use the iceberg above the waterline is the behavior that would be work like political activism civil rights um advocacy and so forth underneath that waterline are all of those things that impact a person's behavior ig's work is in that space where we try to impact beliefs that people have in this case about islamic muslims which has a direct impact on a person's attitude which then has an impact on a person's behavior so we are in the space of working of prevention preventing bullying preventing bias preventing stereotyping preventing discrimination and addressing those issues as as they come up islamophobia hopefully all of you know what that is it is more than just these these frames it is an industry that is producing vitriolic material about islamic muslims it is no coincidence that people have the negative perceptions that they do it didn't happen by itself it is very old it's very historical but more recently i would say since 9 11 it's really kick them 200 million dollars has been spent on this industry given to certain individuals that have been producing very negative material about islamic muslims and these are the kinds of frames that they that they project now how does this impact schools it impacts the way that islam is taught in in schools teachers themselves of course may be biased which also impacts the interaction their interaction with the students the teaching material in south may be inaccurate and there are many examples of that throughout the country and these are examples of two books for example that are used in some school districts that we've that we've worked against and most school districts now have stopped using them as a result discussions about current events may be very insensitive towards muslim students where muslim students are usually singled out as the experts as a spokespeople for for islam and in terms such as us and them usually relegates muslim students as the enemy also harassment muslim students results from this and polls have or surveys rather have been done one that was done recently by care last year which found that about 55 percent of kids experience verbal bullying and harassment in schools other surveys have shown that it's actually all the way up to 80 percent in some cases and what kind of things do kids experience they experience things like name calling and teasing being called terrorists camel jockey killer the harassment of muslim girls not surprising as study pointed out in the people that are usually the first victims of discrimination are women that stand out as as muslims and parents are usually unaware of these of these issues i can tell you from personal experience growing up in the united states i was harassed and i didn't want to talk about it because it was i was ashamed of it so i didn't talk about it i didn't talk about it with my parents i didn't talk about it with really anyone and i just sort of learned how to how to cope with it so this is quite common and it's important to put in context that bullying is a national problem one out of four kids is a victim of bullying with our community and with the c community as well and with the gay community it tends to be much higher rates and why this is important now what we are interested in kids are bullied for all sorts of reasons what we're interested in is bullying that is based that is ethnically or religiously motivated ethnically because they're south asian because they're arab because they're perceived to be of of of of of a muslim background and religiously motivated because that type of bullying we believe is preventable through education youth empowerment and parental engagement education in schools youth empowerment and parental engagement i'm going to talk about these three really quickly and i hopefully i have a little bit more time for educators um and many of you know and many of you might be actually speakers or more speakers at one time for i and g we are actually in schools every day how many presentations and seminars does i and g do about 500 in the bay area alone when you add up all of the presentations and seminars that we do across the country it's around 2000 we do an average of three a three a day we're out of your children's schools supplementing education about Islam and muslims and we have various topics uh that we do that with and all of our content is scholarly based if you want to become a speaker for us we would love to have you all of our speakers and volunteers the reason we're able to do some work so much work is because all of our speakers are volunteers they're trained and they're certified to do this work we also do quite a bit of work with educators as well uh and it's about a two and four hour workshop that we do and we do the same work in in interfaith all panels the impact is tremendous for those of you that do educational outreach that are out there speaking to churches and synagogues and schools and so forth you'll know that the impact is there right people do change their perceptions when they learn more about Islam and when they engage with you as a muslim and that's why this work is so important we just need to do a lot of it across the country and we have a window of time i feel uh in which to do this before it you know before before it gets uh worse we also do uh we also have online curriculum not every teacher's gonna call us in they're not gonna invite us in so we've put all of our curriculum online it's free from teachers that can download our power points they can download our uh script videos all sorts of material that we provide for teachers to be able to teach the stuff without ever having a muslim speaker in the classroom and we also have a lot of answers to frequently asked questions about Islam what we're really excited about is the new program for youth where we actually now i'm gonna quickly we didn't talk about student rights or parental rights maybe we can talk about that later um and you know zahra is here don't sort of respond to these questions um what i do want to talk about is our youth program okay my eight minutes are off i time myself so um we actually certify muslim youth speakers so that they're able to respond to questions about islamic schools so that they're able to present islam because it's required to be taught in middle and high school it comes up in all of the grades so that they're able to present and our presentations for kids are about 10 to 20 minutes um and then we also provide them we also develop their skills in responding difficult questions about islamic muslims i'm very excited about that we've partnered with minute and we'll be doing a lot more of that work we we did our pilot right here at the mcc and i see some of the kids here that attended that training and i'm hoping that there will be the first ones to be certified as speakers what that means is this when i get called in um at the at the ing office instead of sending an adult person like me a paler who sort of is a is a parent to these kids what we want to do is read one and refer them to the kids in that school or in that school district that can actually go out and do this peer to peer presentations are far more effective than adult presentations how do you prevent bullying how do you prevent harassment how do you prevent teasing uh teasing it is when their friends speak up not when their teachers do it not when their friends say well not when the parent becomes involved it stops when their friends say you know what cut it out cut it out i don't like you doing what you you know what you're doing and that's and it's powerful peer to peer uh relationships are incredibly important which is why we want to certify kids across the country i'm going to stop here because i ran out of my time and i can take questions later thank you well we have a lot of collective wisdom on this panel so we want to give you a chance to ask some questions um we are going to be passing out no cards i believe there's someone coming around passing out some no cards and pens um so if you could write your questions on the no card they will bring them up to me and we will uh take a selection of questions so i'm just going to give you just a minute to um to do that um yeah maybe while we're waiting um well the no cards are being passed out we are going to share with you just a short video it's our passion speech about voting was not enough to get you to register this video will push you over the edge and get you get you interested so we'll just share this with you this is an isq video that we just um that we just put out q and a um thank you so much for those of you if you had trouble seeing the words i know you just hear the music but if you have trouble seeing that video it's actually available on our facebook page um and and it should be available on our website as well but you can like us on facebook and uh see it see it that way or love inside isq.org um and share it with your friends to get everyone interested in in this election season can you hear me okay okay so we're starting to get some questions um i'm going to try and feel the best we can and if we have to break from preparing for back we can do that too so as there are continued questions we can come back um so the first question is for dalya uh how is the survey data going to be used to influence decision makers in today's environment okay yeah we'll take three that's a good question so how will this survey be used to influence decision makers in today's environment um someone is asking i think it's directed towards maha about how a 14 year old boy could be part of the program if you could just talk a little bit about how people could actually do that um and then a third question for all of the panelists you encourage someone to vote who believes that their vote is useless what are some tactics that you might be able to take so i will leave you with those three policymakers we are taking this research directly to policymakers we had um i was uh i participated in a meeting with with uh senior officials at the white house and this research was presented we held a briefing on capitol hill where we where we shared it with um staffers and and members of commerce um we've written about this data in in op-eds we've had multiple media articles and and appeared on news programs citing this data but also ultimately there's a limit to what we can do we really this has to be disseminated by all of you in how you engage with with your elected officials this is all public you can download the powerpoint you can take these graphs and share on your facebook page and your twitter account so i want you to own this data yourself and write about it engage when you talk to your uh elected official tell them about this research that's really the only way that it will it will impact policy so how can a 14 year old boy be on behalf of him um in the program so this hot but if you could stand up this hot baton he's this young man right here we just hired him he's our very first igu coordinator great background um he used to get ahead of the msa at his um at his university uh we have uh six to eight hour workshops depending on what kind of training that you want by the end of that training you will develop skill sets to be able to respond to difficult questions and to be able to present as well then we certify you through testing and you do have to pass a test and then you're part of a network that would include lots of training and you become part of a national network of youth speakers we just started the program as i said and we're partnered with been as a first big partner to do this work but uh mcc was our first pilot which i'm really excited about thanks to brother wheneer and and others that helped organize this and i think we trained about 50 or 60 but i think only uh 15 are becoming certified and i hope some of the young guys that i've seen here and young ladies are going to come to the test that's happening in the end of the life the question about the effectiveness of voting is hard because there's no standby answer to it and also the person that feels that way could feel that way for countless reasons which is why i think the inshallah voter video strategy is so important this idea that i'm talking to my friends on a long-term basis about the effectiveness of civic engagement i as a peer i'm going to be able to push them over to to move them on the issue the few ideas that come to mind for me are one that local elections like hyper local elections school board elections are sometimes won by just dozens of votes our Sacramento executive director of arsenal capacity ran for the school board last year maybe two years ago lost by about a hundred votes ran again this year and won by about a hundred votes i'm more concerned about having diversity on the school board because those are the people that are directly overseeing the policies the issues the practices the remedies when my child has an issue in the community those are also people again that are just starting out in the process people that run for congress today ran for school board 10 or 20 years ago less than a hundred votes that's as many people are as far in this room today that's one issue the second issue is that we are winning in certain cases the muslim community has been able to push out bad elected officials and bring in good ones so it's not just about getting people in sometimes it's about getting people out the third is that as muslims we believe we're rewarded for our efforts so i may not always win but i made the intention i did everything i could and so when i think about my civic engagement being divinely driven or being motivated by my faith i may not get the president that i want but did i do everything i could to get the best person in office now longer conversation offline about lesser evils and how we determine what the best person is big for our individual vote but did i make every effort and then the last piece is that person that thinks that their one vote doesn't count if that's all they're doing yeah they're taking the least effective civic engagement strategy right so yes start with voting but if i'm not staying in touch with the elected official if i'm not giving money if i'm not writing to them on a regular basis and i'm not volunteering in my community then yeah like i'm going to have little impact i'm going to get as much out of it as i put in okay thank you so much these are all really great questions all the ones that are coming in so i'm gonna throw in a couple more um there are a number of questions that similarly ask the same question which is um i think a lot of people are feeling helpless or they're not really sure what to do on two fronts one how do you start to denounce and counter the views of groups like ISIS but two how do you denounce and counter the the anti-muslim rhetoric that's also coming from uh from politicians and others at the moment um as a as a normal citizen how do you do that or as a working woman or um just in your daily life so that's one question a second question how do you talk to your kids about Islamophobia um and a third question um um there's a couple of very specific uh questions around the poll um so i'm going to ask one of them which is can you explain why there's a disconnect between mass rhetoric which often focuses on foreign policy and your findings would show that foreign policy is actually less of a concern so let me start actually with how to talk to your kids about Islamophobia because it's a question i've gotten personally i've gotten almost everywhere i've gone wherever i go this is a question that has come up and so i i would say there are three things we need to do this tricky little so here are the three things i recommend one is we have to teach our Muslim American kids about their own history in this country the idea that they are foreigners is a fallacy it's a fallacy it's a historical fallacy that is a foreign concept foreign agent in america is not it's just not true if we were to to make them aware and make them proud through a wonderful curriculum like like i just talked about about Islam's history in this country that would that would give them the confidence to to respond to some of these issues number two is this idea of helping our children grow spiritually so that they are able to this is something we all need not just our kids i personally needed but this idea of wearing a a barrier or wearing a an armor of praise or an armor of love not love for for the bigots necessarily that's not i'm incapable of that but love for those things that they did great we if the idea that Islamophobia is just something that we have to kind of you know defend against so we're not victims of like bullying is not true bullying is one aspect of it a much more pervasive issue is internalizing Islamophobia is believing Islamophobia is is actually thinking you know maybe something you know is wrong with our faith and so that response the ability these responses that kids are able to give is first to themselves is to be able to actually reinforce why this identity why this faith is worth maintaining and if we don't all continue to replace that that sense of awe and and and deep love for the prophet and and Allah is very very easy for it to get shipped away by the attacks okay then the third is to arm our children and ourselves with the critical thinking skills necessary to dismantle and deconstruct the attacks because they're actually all built on false logic they really are but if we don't have these skills if we don't have these conversations to really look at things from the lens of critical thinking it's very easy to get pulled into them so I those would be broadly the three things I would I would recommend is teach the history you know continuously strengthen our praise and our love for our faith and then third is critical thinking that reminded me that part of our training that we do with youth is deconstruction of questions that are asked to help them understand that some of these questions that come at us are usually loaded with a lot of assumptions and and misperceptions and that we need to first unpack that don't jump in and respond a lot of the questions that come at us but to unpack it and ask why do you think this way you know why what makes you think that all muslims are this or that women are you know mistreated and so forth to try to get to the root of the question that is being asked and respond to that is instead of instead of jumping in immediately and because when you do that you're actually reinforcing and that does require critical thinking so I really love that you mentioned this I'm also going to say one thing about to add to the idea that is advice was which was brilliant is to speak up it's incredibly important now when you hear something that is negative that is critical of your religion not only against yourself but other people you absolutely need to speak up absolutely I need every presentation that I do with Americans of other faith by asking asking them to become ambassadors now that you've learned more now that you understand the truth about this faith and so forth you now need to speak up you now need to challenge what people say to you that it is negative now that you know you have that responsibility and I would say the same thing to muslims you need to speak up for your for yourself and for your for your religion it requires literacy which is to the point of that you have to know your religion well there are a number of organizations that provide answers to frequently asked questions ing is one of them they're all online questions on sharia questions on ices questions on general questions you know about Islam i'm women and all sorts of common questions that we usually get very easy to respond to but you have to make the effort to read and to reflect and to put it in your own language to be able to respond that's I mean we have to do this we have no other it's not an option for us not to do this do it if you don't want to do it for yourself do it for your children do it for the next generation you but you have to do it


Approximately 3,500 infants die annually in the United States from sleep-related deaths. Many of these deaths are a result of babies sleeping in an unsafe environment and we needed to do something. So the main components of this program is really education. We came up with a simple slogan for a safe sleep baby, which is ABCs of safe sleep. The ABCs of safe sleep stand for alone, on their back, in a crib. As soon as the patient arrives on the mom-baby unit, we start talking about safe sleep. One of the first things we did was we made a crib card that goes inside the infant bassinet and it has the ABCs of safe sleep. The other thing we did was put some signage up in the rooms and then the most important piece is the consistent messaging. What we ask is, do you have a safe place for your baby to sleep when you get home? I never used a crib with all my other kids, but once they brought, came in and gave me these statistics, it really wasn't eye-opener. I went home and was like, I'm going to stick with this and have him get used to sleeping in a crib, so I stuck with it and I think he's happy and I'm happy and I feel that we're safe. It's about really creating the awareness because if I tell my daughter and my daughter tells her friend who tells her friend it's the ripple effect and when you can spare just one family the grief of losing a child, that's tremendous.


Hey beauties I'm Bianca Renee and you're watching Bianca Renee Today and today I'll be doing a swimsuit tryout haul and all of my swimsuits are from Sheehan.com No this video is not sponsored these bathing suits are just so affordable that I went a little crazy and bought a lot. All the swimsuits you're about to see I bought with my own money and they all range from a whopping 10 to 11 dollars. I know, insane. The prices are almost too good to be true I thought I would order myself with my own money and kind of see how my real experience is with them shipping it to me, picking out my sizes, see how everything fits and I must say I'm very impressed. So without further ado let's start trying on some suits. Side note I did want to mention that I did get my underarms, Brazilian and legs lasered. I got laser hair removal and let me tell you I 100% recommend it. It's been so nice not shaving I think I only have to shave like maybe once every three months and even if I forget the hair grows back so thin that you really can't see anything like I low key forgot my razor on my last trip and I was like I forgot I don't have to worry about that anymore so that's amazing. Now back to the tryout haul. Alright swimsuit number one I got this yellow cheetah print one piece now it does have this little tie here I guess you could tie it in the back if you want I kind of liked how it looked tied in the front. I do love that it has some padding on here so that way if you don't want to you know free the nip you don't have to. I did wear this swimsuit in a rubah and I was worried I would need like a really weird circle stomach tan but even though I was in the sun all day I did not get a weird tan from this so that was very surprising. I really like the back of these bathing suits it's not like a thong it's also not really full coverage it's kind of just like a happy medium that I'm okay with. Now if you guys watch my instagram story which is at Miss Bianca Renee when I was in a rubah you might have seen me pair it with this little cover up now this is the only item I'm showing that's actually not from Sheehan this is actually from Boohoo I got this a long time ago I don't even know if it's still on the website but it worked really well I got a lot of compliments on it it's not the exact pattern now that you're looking at it really close up but no one said anything it still works super cute you know it did its job. Next bathing suit is this red snake skin one piece this is a size medium it fits pretty well I don't exactly fill out the cup-age area all the way I am a 34 V cup size so if you're a C I think you'd probably fill it out even better even though it is a medium I think you'd be fine the back is also just like a nice cheeky but not really thong not really full coverage either it is very comfortable the straps are adjustable so I did kind of pull it up so it would fill in a little bit more but if you have more boobs it'll fit even better this swimsuit is very similar to the one I just showed you in yellow but because they're only $10 I was like why not I couldn't decide so I got both but it's giving me very flintstones bam bam vibes you know with this kind of peachy cheetah print but if it's great same type of cut in the back and you could tie it either way you want this is another one that I wore on Aruba and I loved it alright next swimsuit I know what you're thinking it's a little much it's definitely J-Lo AMA vibes if I had more boobs it would probably look better they'd be a little bit more perched up this is what we're working with so first I tied it on like this just making it like a halter but you can't do any extreme swimming in this or you will pop out like this is not secure at all and your double-sided tape is not going to help you in the water but I was looking at this tie and it has all this extra string so it's like there has to be a reason why all this string is here and then it clicked so what you could do is you bring the string down and then you could tie it here for some extra support so the girls don't fall out so now we are more secure and it kind of like sucks in the waistline a little bit so now you are just I think it fits me perfectly I like that it's not too tight being a one-piece I am 5'8 with a long torso so everything fits so the only no I like this is one of the few two pieces that I got I used to never like one pieces but now that's pretty much all I ordered but this one's really cute half cheetah half white I love this little belt detail right here that you could just you know attach it easily so you could put it on and the bottoms are kind of high-waisted a little bit very full coverage on the side and probably the most full coverage bottoms that I got the top is like a tank top so you don't have any little straps cutting into your shoulders or anything but this one is really cute I like it I do want to say that when I bought all these bathing suits instead of just buying all small or all medium I made sure to check the sizing because every suit was different so this one is actually a medium and a small would have been way too small once again I am a 34v up top so I don't have much going on and this is tied on me so I'm really glad I got a medium and last but not least another yellow cheetah print I know what you're thinking why you keep buying all the same print it's $10 why not now this one's very interesting it's very scuba diving on the front but then cheeky vacation on the bottom now to be completely open with you guys I do suffer from a little bit of body acne it's definitely a lot better but I originally got this bathing suit thinking hey this is a way that you can go swimming and not have your whole back exposed if it makes you uncomfortable so this bathing suit is for those that are self-conscious about your back but not about your booty because these are definitely the most cheeky ones that I have if you sneeze it will become a thong so keep that in mind if you don't want to be too revealing on the bottom but it has like very thin strap on the side Brazilian cut pretty cheeky I did not take this bathing suit to Aruba it was way too hot to be having sleeves so keep in mind when you want to wear this maybe more like night swimming I guess you do have to tie this little thing here making like a crop top t-shirt and it does have padding but they're kind of just like loose so they could just kind of fall wherever you want you have to kind of adjust them to where they need to go so keep that in mind but overall very unique type of suit pretty cute so those are the bathing suits I got from Sheehan.com please leave me a comment down below let me know which bathing suit was your favorite super affordable I love them all if you have 10 to 11 dollars get as many as you want I do like the quality of all the suits I got I wouldn't really call them like cheap material it just feels like normal bathing suit material that you get from like Target or anywhere so I'm very impressed I got everything on time everything was affordable everything fits just make sure you check the sizing and go crazy like I did if you found this video helpful for your own shopping needs make sure you give me a thumbs up and subscribe I post two new videos every week once on Friday and once on Sunday and if you want to see photos of me in these bikinis in Aruba make sure you follow me on Instagram at Ms. Bianca Renee I'll see you guys next time thanks for watching Bianca Renee Today


Hi, I'm Dazza Greenwood from MIT and we would just like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the sixth annual MIT computational law course. We are your instructors and TAs and we want to take this chance to say hello, Brian. Hi everybody I'm really excited to get to know you all over the course of the next four weeks and I think this is going to be a really fun opportunity to create a bunch of good ideas flowing around about you know what computational is and what computational law could be. And so I'm really excited for all of this great potential that we have to think in new and exciting ways. And with that I'll hand it over to Andrew. Hi I'm Andrew Demzowski, I'll be one of your TAs for this course very excited for your participation and looking forward to a good discussion. With that I'll hand it to Megan. I'm also one of the TAs for this course. Fun fact I was formerly a participant in the course so this year is a little bit of a fresh change. I'm really looking forward to meeting all of you. And with that I'll pass it to Tanmay. Thanks Megan. My name is Tanmay Rogier and I'm also one of your TAs for this course. This will be my third year TAing with the MIT computational law workshop and I'm excited to meet all of you guys tomorrow. And with that I'll pass it to Daza who's going to bring it home. I'll bring it home. Thanks so we've got a terrific course set up for you. Amazing speakers, the opportunity to do projects, and plenty of opportunity for engagement and we'll have some office hours and we hope to learn as much from you as we all learn from each other. So with that, we look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Thanks. Good night. Bye. Thank you.


So very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu Newspaper Analysis of Shankarae's Academy. Today's date is 4th of February 2023. Displayed here are the list of news articles that we are going to discuss today. So with that much delay, let us get into the first news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article. It talks about the recent tussle between Delhi Chief Minister and his left-hand governor. Due to differences in opinion between the two, weekly meetings between them are not taking place. This is what is given in the news article displayed here. In this context, let us learn about the powers of left-hand governor in our exam perspective. Now before saying the powers of left-hand governor, let us briefly learn about union territories of India. See the term union of India can be divided into two categories. One is the state and the other is the union territories. So what is the difference between a state and an union territory? The main difference between a state and an union territory is that state governments have the exclusionary power to make laws regarding the subjects that are listed under the state list of the 7th schedule. Now this power has not been extended to the union territories. Note that both the union parliament and the union territories with the legislative assembly have concurrent powers of law making in the state list subjects. So this is about the main difference between union territories and states in India. We know that in total 8 union territories all there in India. I have displayed here the 8 union territories and the name of the executive heads of the territories here. You can go through it. Now if you notice, the normal closure of the head of executives are not the same in every union territory. For the UTs of Delhi, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, the executive head is called as left-in-and-governor. While for the other 3 union territories the executive head is called as administrator. Here also note that only Delhi and Puducherry have a legislature of their own while the other union territories don't have a legislative body of their own. Now coming to Jammu and Kashmir specific information. See Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act which was passed in the year 2019 provides that the administration of the Jammu and Kashmir will be as per Article 239A of the Indian constitution. Article 239A was originally formulated for only the union territory of Puducherry but after the amendment of JNK Reorganization Act 2019, Article 239A is now made applicable to Jammu and Kashmir also. So this is all about the brief background of union territories present in India. Now coming to the administrative details of Delhi, see as I said earlier Delhi has a legislative body which is headed by a chief minister. It also has an executive head called left-in-and-governor who is nominated by the union government. Since the left-in-and-governor is representative of the union, sometimes there emerges a confrontation between the left-in-and-governor and the publicly elected CM of Delhi. Normally when we consider states the governor who are nominated by the center have only certain discretionary powers. But this is not the case with respect to union territories. Here the left-in-and-governor are provided with huge powers. This is why conflict emerges between the left-in-and-governor and the CM's of the union territories. This scenario is not only particular to Delhi. This was the case with respect to Puducherry as well. When former IPS officer Kiran Bedi was made the left-in-and-governor of Puducherry, there emerged a constant battle between her and the Puducherry CM of the day. So this is a brief background of the left-in-and-governor. Now coming to the powers of left-in-and-governor with respect to Delhi, see we have looked at the article 239A. Now to understand that we have to look at the article 239A sub-clause 4 to understand the power of the left-in-and-governor of Delhi. This particular clause gives left-in-and-governor the power to refer to president, any issue which arises because of a difference of opinion between the left-in-and-governor and his ministers. If a decision on an urgent issue needed to be taken then left-in-and-governor has been provided with the necessary power to take the decision even if the issue is pending before the president. This power is frequently used by the left-in-and-governor to act against the advice of council of ministers of Delhi. Now we have to make note of this because this is an extraordinary power which is granted to the left-in-and-governor of Delhi. He can go against the directions of his council of ministers using this particular clause given under the article 239AA of the Indian constitution. Now the article given in today's newspaper was based on an issue related to sending some primary school teachers of Delhi on an educational tour to Finland. The CM of Delhi wants his school teachers to go on with the trip but the left-in-and-governor of Delhi is questioning the government regarding this particular tour. He questioned the government on the cost-benefit analysis of the tour. He noted that the file for the approval of the tour is pending with the left-in-and-governor office. So because of this issue, weekly meetings between the left-in-and-governor and the Delhi CM has been boycotted. So this is what is said in this news article. So I hope we covered holistically about the powers of left-in-and-governor and then we saw specifically about the powers of left-in-and-governor with respect to Delhi. So with these learnt points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this editorial article. This editorial article talks about the steps taken in the budget that will aid in India's green energy transition. So in this news article discussion, let us understand few important points mentioned in the editorial in detail. So recently an article was published during the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Dawos. The article stated that India holds the key to achieve global climate change targets. Now here you might have a question. Why does India holds the key to achieve not just our but the global climate change targets? There are certain reasons for that. Let us see them one by one. See the first reason is the growing population. According to recent reports, India's population is set to overtake China's population. So if a huge country like India cut down emissions, then global climate change targets can be easily achieved. So this is the first reason. The second reason is India's growing energy needs. See economically, India is one of the fastest growing countries in the world, right? So to continue on its growth path, India needs reliable energy. Currently the demand for energy is set to grow for India. But the issue here is currently fossil fuel is the major contributor to India's energy needs. So in the near future, if India makes a course correction and switches to renewable sources to satisfy its growing energy needs, it will contribute to sustainable growth in India. So if India attains a sustainable growth, it will also go a long way in addressing the climate change crisis that the world is currently facing. So because of these two reasons, it is being said that India holds the key to achieve global climate change targets and India, being a responsible country, realized the role it has to play in combating global climate change. So this is why in COP26, India committed to become carbon neutral by 2070. India has taken various steps towards climate change. In the recent budget also, India took some steps. So now let us see some of the steps taken by India. See firstly, India has decided to exempt customs duty on the import of capital goods and machinery required to manufacture lithium-ion cells. But why? See in India, all the major automobile manufacturers have started rolling out various electronic vehicle models. But the uptake of EV in India is still low due to its high cost-compared to conventional vehicles. Now this is again because availability of indigenously produced lithium-ion battery is not sufficient. So this is why the government has decided to exempt customs duty on the import of capital goods and machinery required to manufacture lithium-ion cells. So this move of the government will give a boost to domestic manufacture of lithium-ion batteries. This in turn will make EV cheaper. So this is the first step taken by government. Secondly, our government has decided to establish a viability gap funding mechanism to support the creation of battery energy storage systems with a capacity of 4000 MW. Now what is the requirement of a battery storage system? See India has decided to move towards renewable energy like wind and solar power. But the thing about wind and solar power is that they produce variable power. That is unlike thermal power plants, power production from wind and solar cannot be scaled up and down based on the demand for electricity. In case of wind and solar power, sometimes they produce more power than the demand and sometimes they produce power less than the demand. So we need storage devices to store excess power produced during low demand and supply the stored power when energy demand is high. So to successfully integrate renewable energy into our power grids we need a battery storage system. But currently the battery storage system in India is very meager. To address this our government has decided to establish a viability gap funding mechanism to support the creation of battery energy storage systems with a capacity of 4000 MW. So this is the second major step taken by our government. Now finally the government has allotted 8300 crore rupees towards setting up an interstate transmission line from Ladakh. See the solar energy production capacity of Ladakh is very high. This is because Ladakh has vast stretches of barren land and one of our country's highest level of sunlight availability. The renewable energy potential of Ladakh is around 13 gigawatts. But right now there are not many solar power plants in Ladakh. This is because there is not interstate transmission line from Ladakh. So even if power is produced in Ladakh it cannot be transmitted to our country's main grid. To address this problem our government has allotted 8300 crore rupees towards setting up an interstate transmission line from Ladakh. So this will help us to tap Ladakh's solar energy potential. So these are all some of the steps taken by the government that will help India go grid and address the climate crisis. So in this news article discussion we saw in detail about why does India hold the key to achieve the global climate change targets and that the first reason is growing population and the second reason is India's growing energy needs. Then we saw about some of the steps taken by our government. Thirdly our government has exempted customs duty on the import of capital goods and machinery required to manufacture lithium ion cells. We saw that this will make EV cheaper. Secondly we saw that our government has decided to establish a viability gap funding mechanism to support the creation of battery energy storage systems. And thirdly we saw that the government has allotted certain rupees towards setting up an interstate transmission line from Ladakh. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article. It talks about the military coup in Myanmar. We all know that the military captured power through a coup right? But it is now struggling to have a grip on the power. A report by the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar which is an independent group of international experts says that the military has stable control over only 17% of the country. The military has been restoring to indiscriminate bombing to bring things under control. According to the United Nations 17.6 million people which is roughly a third of Myanmar's population will need humanitarian assistance. Now this is not helping anyone's cause. Therefore the authors suggest a meaningful dialogue between the Janta and the opposition to restore democracy. This is the cracks of the news article given here. Now taking this as an opportunity let us revise about India-Myanmar relations. Now before that the syllabus relevant to this news article is highlighted here. You can just go through it. See India and Myanmar relations are rooted in shared historical, ethnic, cultural and religious ties. India and Myanmar share a long land border of over 1600 km and a maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal. Notably four northeastern states that is Arunachal Pradesh, Naha Land, Manipur and Visoram share border with Myanmar. Also a large population of Indian origin live in Myanmar. Besides this India and Myanmar had signed a Treaty of Friendship in 1951. This laid the foundation for a stronger relationship between India and Myanmar. Now we will understand the significance of this relation. See Myanmar is the only Asian country adjoining India and therefore our gateway to Southeast Asia. We know that India is seeking greater economic integration with Southeast Asia through the Act East policy right? So Myanmar is a bridge between India and Asia. To put it in simple words, while Myanmar is India's gateway to Southeast Asia, India is Myanmar's gateway to Southeast Asia. Then from the point of regional stability, see India and Myanmar border poses a challenge to India's security. There has been a greater influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state into India. This may cause stress in the border states. So the help of Myanmar's government is needed for us in this respect. Then India did not take a hard-line approach on the Myanmar's military in the Rohingya issue and kept its distance when Myanmar was hauled into the International Coast of Justice over acquisition of Rohingya genocide. Now this is also done in consideration of the strategic importance of Myanmar to India. Besides all this, there is another aspect to why Myanmar is significant to us. It is none other than China. See China has increasing its influence and is using Myanmar for gas, minerals, rubber and gemstones. China is also accessing Myanmar's naval ports to increase its presence in the Indian Ocean to encircle India. So to counter this, a strong relation with Myanmar is significant for India. Also India's economic engagement with Myanmar lacks behind China. So that is an urgent need for India to scale up economic ties with Myanmar. So far we saw about the significance of the India-Myanmar relationship and we saw about the regional stability. Now we will see what are the areas of cooperation between the two countries. See many infrastructure projects are underway. This includes the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway and the Kaladhan multimodal transit which aims to connect the Kolkata port with the Sitve Deepwater port in Myanmar's Rakhine state by sea. See as part of its Sahar policy, here Sahar means security and growth for all in the region. So as part of its Sahar policy, it is India that developed the Sitve port in Myanmar's Rakhine state. The Kaladhan multimodal transit project will connect South-West Myanmar to North-East India. The project would create a multimodal transit through sea, river and road transport corridor to boost interconnectivity. India's long-term strategic goal is to create a special economic zone surrounding the Sitve port. If this has been done, India would boost its presence in the Bay of Bengal. Also, the Sitve port is meant to be India's answer to the Chinese-fronted QQ port. Then secondly, in the line of security cooperation, India and Myanmar armies have carried out two joint military operations. They are codenamed as Operation Sunshine 1 and 2. This is to fight militants along the borders of Myanmar's Rakhine state, which borders the North-Eastern Indian states. Apart from this, there are military exercises like the India-Myanmar bilateral army exercise, in short called IMBAX. It is aimed at building and promoting closer relations with armies. Further to deepen the defence relations, India and Myanmar signed a landmark defence cooperation agreement in July 2019. Besides these, India has identified Myanmar's key to increasing its military exports. So along that line, Myanmar bought India's first locally procured anti-submarine torpedo called Tal-Shena in 2017. And in 2019, Myanmar acquired a diesel-electric kilo-class submarine INS Sindhuvir. Then along the cultural lines, the Buddhist circuit initiative seeks to double foreign tourist arrivals and revenue by connecting ancient Buddhist heritage sites across different states in India. This is also aimed at the Buddhist majority, Myanmar. Apart from this, bilateral trade has grown from $12.4 million in 1980-81 to $2.18 billion in 2016-17. Myanmar is also the beneficiary of a duty-free tariff preference scheme for least-developed countries' LDCs. Then some of the Indian companies like SR, Gail and ONGC, Videsh Limiter have invested in Myanmar's energy sector. Then cooperation in the banking sector, the United Bank of India and XIM Bank have representative offices at Myanmar. So these are all some of the important points that you have to remember about. India-Myanmar relations. Now recognizing its significance, India-Myanmar relations have to be prioritized by both countries and bilateral commitments should be translated to practical outcomes. This would help India to augment its standing as a regional power in the India Pacific. So with these learned points, now let us move on to the next news-article discussion. According to the news article, the finance minister of Kerala while announcing the state budget said that India Innovation Center for Graphene which is being set up in Trissure, Kerala will become operational by September this year. He also said that Kerala Digital University has signed a MOU with Saigen University, Germany for research and development activities related to the graphene ecosystem. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us learn about graphene and what is this India Innovation Center for Graphene. So what is a graphene? Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms which are tightly bounded in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. Now look at this image here. This is the bonding structure of graphene which is looking like a honeycomb, right? Remember graphene is an allotrope of carbon and it is the building block of graphite. That is the layers of graphene are piled on top of each other to form graphite. Graphene is the most electrically and thermally conducting material in the world. This means that graphene is the best conductor of heat at room temperature and also the best conductor of electricity. Know that graphene is also flexible, transparent and incredibly strong. It is said that graphene is 200 times stronger than steel and it is 1000 times lighter than paper with 98% transparency. Apart from this, graphene is also considered to be the world's first 2D material and it is said to be 1 million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair. Graphene is also known as a wonder material because of its vast potential in the energy and medical world. So with this basic understanding, let us move on to see about India Innovation Center for Graphene. See in February 2022, the Kerala government announced to set up India Innovation Center for Graphene. It is the country's first graphene innovation center which is being constructed in Trishur Kerala. It is a joint venture of the Digital University of Kerala Center for Materials for Electronic Technology and Tata Steel Limiter. So what is the significance of this center? The first significance is that the graphene innovation center would boost the industry sector in the southern states. It would encourage new startups which in turn the startups could leverage the advanced properties of graphene to innovate new products and services. The second significance is that the innovation center would attract internationally leading research on graphene into India. It would also bridge the gap between scientific development and industrial applications of graphene in our country. And finally through the center, the existing industrial organizations could also enhance the quality of their products and services by exploring the possibilities of using graphene in their production process. So that's all you have to know about this news article discussion. See in this news article discussion, we saw in detail about what is graphene and we saw about the significance of the India Innovation Center for Graphene. So with these learnt points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this news article. It says that India would showcase the success stories of rural and archaeological tourism during the first tourism working group meeting of the G20 nations. This is to be held at the Ranafkach in Gujarat. Basically the idea is to present rural tourism as a means of community improvement and poverty elevation. The article says that the Lattpura Kaas village of Madhya Pradesh, Kunama village of Nagaland and heritage sites like Dholavira will be showcased at this event. Here note that Lattpura Kaas was nominated as the best rural tourism village by the UN WTO, that is World Tourism Organization. It is also said that the success of developing many rural tourism products in and around Ranafkach will also be presented during this event. So in this context, we will use this opportunity to learn few facts about Ranafkach. See the Ranafkach is a salty marshy land in the Ta desert in the Kach district of western Gujarat. It lies between Gujarat in India and the Sindh province in Pakistan. The Ranafkach is known to be the largest salt desert in the world. The Hindi word rhan means desert. This rhan extended about 300 km from east to west and 150 km from north to south. The Ranafkach comprises a unique example of Holasy sedimentation. Also note that the Ranafkach is connected to the Arabian Sea through Cori Creek in the west and the Gulf of Kach in the east. So what is this Gulf of Kach? We know that a Gulf is a portion of the ocean that penetrates land, right? So basically the Gulf of Kach is an inlet of the Arabian Sea along the west coast of India. It actually divides Kach and the Kathiavar Peninsula regions of Gujarat as you can see in this image. It actually comprises three landscapes. They include the great Ranafkach, the little Ranafkach and the Bani grassland. The great rhan is in the north and the little rhan is in the southeast as you can see in this image. These two are separated by the highland of Kach. Then the Bani grasslands. This grassland in Gujarat's Kach district is one of the largest grasslands in the Indian subcontinent. The Bani grasslands was declared a protected forest in 1955 under the Indian Forest Act 1927. There has been numerous natural wetlands in Bani and the largest one is known as Chari Dant which was recently declared as conservation to serve. This rhan has been populated since the Bronze Age. We all know about the Indus Valley civilization, right? So these people of IVC had many settlements in the Ranafkach. Dolavera is the largest Indus Valley site in the region. Now talking about its ecology, the Ranafkach region is also home to a range of wildlife like the flamingoes and the wild as that can be spotted around the desert often. It also makes a part of sanctuaries like the Indian wild as Sanctuary, Kach Desert Wildlife Sanctuary etc. Spinny-tailed lizard, henna and antelope species like Nilgai and Chincara are found in the Kach Desert Wildlife Sanctuary. Make note of all these points since G20 is always in news, there might be a question in preliminary examination. So kindly make note of these facts. So these are the points. Now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article. According to the news article, the Tamil Nadu state government has informed the National Green Tribunal that the Pen Memorial proposed for former Chief Minister M. Karnanidhi will be built only after obtaining all necessary clearances and permissions from various authorities. This includes permissions from the National Coastal Zone Management Authority and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This is the cracks of the news article given here. In this context, let us learn a few facts about the National Green Tribunal from the problem's perspective. See the National Green Tribunal or NGT was established in the year 2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010. So we can say that NGT is a statutory body. NGT is a specialized body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes involving multidisciplinary issues. Know that NGT shall not be bounded by the procedure laid down under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 but it shall be guided by principles of natural justice. So what is the reason behind the creation of NGT? See NGT was established for effective and expeditious dispossession of cases related to environmental protection, conservation of forest and other natural resources. Now talking about NGT's location, NGT has its presence in five zones. They are North, Central, East, South and West zones. The principal bench is situated in the North zone which is headquartered in Delhi. The central zone bench is situated in Bhopal, then the East zone in Kolkata, then South zone in Chennai and West zone in Pune. Now talking about the composition of the NGT, the NGT is headed by the chairman who sits in the principal bench. The chairman shall be the one who is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court or Chief Justice of the High Court. Then the tribunal should have at least 10 judicial members but the judicial members should not exceed 20. Here the qualification of the judicial member is that that person should be or has been a judge of the High Court. Apart from the judicial members, the tribunal also has at least 10 expert members. Here also the expert members should not exceed 20. Remember the expert members should possess experience and qualification in the technological and scientific field or practical experience in matters related to the environment. Now talking about the appointment, the chairperson, judicial members and expert members of tribunal shall be appointed by the central government. The chairperson shall be appointed by the central government after consulting the Chief Justice of India. Now talking about the functioning of NGT, firstly the tribunal has jurisdiction over all civil cases involving a substantial question related to the environment. Secondly, the tribunal is vested with the powers for the enforcement of any legal right relating to the environment. Thirdly the NGT can order the concerned parties to provide relief and compensation for damages to persons and property. Apart from this, if a person seeking relief and compensation for environmental damage which involves subjects in the legislations that are mentioned in Schedule 1 of the National Green Tribunal Act 2010, they may approach the National Green Tribunal. Now the legislations mentioned in the Schedule 1 of the NGT Act 2010 are given here for your reference. You can go through it. So these are all some of the important points that you have to note about NGT. So in this news article discussion, we saw about NGT, the reason for its establishment, then where it is located, then we saw about the composition and qualification of the members. Finally, we saw about the functioning of NGT. So these learnt points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this news article, the news is that the Madras High Court has initiated so motto, contempt of court, proceedings against great Chennai corporation zonal officer for commenting in open court. He commented that an additional advocate general has scored a same side goal. This happened when the law officer fairly considered that the rules had not been followed in a tender notification issued by the officer. So this is the cracks of the news article given here. In this context, let us understand about contempt of court in exam perspective. So first of all, what is contempt of court? See when someone is said to be in contempt of court, then he or she has disrespected the court's order or lowered the authority of the court. The objective behind the concept of contempt of court is to safeguard the interest of the public. Because if the authority of the court is lowered, then public confidence in the administration of justice will be weakened or eroded. This might result in the collapse of the entire judicial system. So the concept of contempt of court is necessary for the judiciary to function smoothly. Now remember the contempt of court can be of two types.  First let us take civil contempt. A civil contempt means willful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or willful breach of an undertaking given to a court. So this is about civil contempt. Now moving on to criminal contempt. See a criminal contempt means the publication of any matter or doing any other act which scandalizes the court or lowers the authority of any court. Here the term scandalizing the court refers to something that brings the authority, administration or law by the court into this repute or creates distrust and disbelief in the minds of the public at large. A criminal contempt case also includes the publication of any matter which infers with the due course of any judicial proceedings or abstracts the administration of justice in any other manner. Here the publication could be by words spoken or written or by signs or by visible representations. So basically the difference between civil and criminal contempt is that in case of civil contempt the order of the court is not followed and in case of the criminal contempt the authority of the court is slow yet. So I hope you could understand what is contempt of court and what are the two types of contempt of court. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion. Now look at this first question this question is about contempt of court. First statement it is well defined in the constitution of India. See statement one is incorrect because the constitution of India does not define the term contempt of court. The constitution only impovers the high court and the supreme court to punish the contempt. Apart from this the contempt of court act 1971 only defines the contempt of court So this statement is incorrect. Now look at the second statement article 129 of the constitution empowers the supreme court to punish for any contempt of itself. See this statement is actually correct article 129 declares the supreme court as a court of record and the supreme court shall have all the powers of a court of record including the power to punish for its contempt of itself. Now the third statement article 215 of the constitution empowers the high court to punish for any contempt of itself. This statement is also correct article 215 declares high court as a court of record and the high court shall have all the powers of such a court including the powers to punish for contempt for itself. So the correct answer for the question is option B213 only. Now this question is about NGT. Statement one the NGT has been established by an act whereas the CPCB has been created by the executive order of the government. See this statement is actually incorrect. From our discussion we know that the National Green Tribunal was established under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010. Like this the Central Pollution Control Board was also established under the Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act 1974. So both are statutory bodies. Hence first statement is incorrect. Now look at the second statement the NGT provides environmental justice and helps reduce the burden of litigation in the higher courts whereas the CPCB promotes cleanliness of streams and wells and aims to improve the quality of air in the country. See actually this statement is correct. Since the statement itself is self-explanatory we can say that the correct answer for the question is option B213. Now moving on to the quiz question of the day. This question about RAN of Kutch is the quiz question for you today. Try to solve the question and pose the correct answer in the comment section. So displayed here are the main practice questions for you today. Quite a lot of questions but still if you keep on practicing only you can score better, right? So just try to write an answer and post it in the comment section. So with this we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video hit like, do comment and don't forget to subscribe to Shankara Ayes Academy YouTube channel. Now thank you for listening.