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Human Rights Fears at Dutch Inquiry Into Muslim Population

Concerned that the country may have become a hotbed of Islamist fundamentalism, the Netherlands is to investigate the activities of its 800,000 Muslims.

The survey of beliefs and activities called for by the lower house of parliament has alarmed human rights groups.

It will cover the funding and management of mosques and the training of clerics, and will seek to discover how many Muslims can legitimately be classed as fundamentalists.

This year’s general election, in which the anti-immigration party founded by the murdered libertarian Pim Fortuyn came second, has created a wave of anti-Muslim feeling in the Netherlands, reinforced by a recent television report on the behaviour of some imams.

The inquiry is strongly supported by Jan Peter Balkenende’s rightwing coalition government, led by Christian Democrats and including Fortuyn’s party.

Nova, a current affairs programme, secretly recorded four imams railing against the west and broadcast the tapes last month, provoking the indignation of Dutch citizens.

One imam in the Hague is heard asking Allah to “take care of” President George Bush and the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and another in Amsterdam sings the praises of Palestinian suicide bombers.

Others make derogatory remarks about women, angering the egalitarian-minded Dutch, who are still incensed by the Rotterdam imam Khalil el-Moumni, who described homosexuality as a “contagious disease”.

Prosecutors are studying the tapes to decide whether the imams broke the law and incited others to violence.

Islam and Citizenship, a lobby representing Muslims in the Netherlands, welcomed the investigation as an opportunity to show that most Muslims are moderates, but suggested that Muslims were being discriminated against.

“One has to wonder whether the government doesn’t apply different standards to different sections of the population,” its spokesman Yassin Hartog said. “There has been no such investigation into fundamentalist Christian groups for example.”

He said the problem of Islamic fundamentalism in the Netherlands had been vastly exaggerated. The report which did so much to provoke the investigation concerned only four or five mosques out of a national total of 500, he pointed out.

But he admitted that his organisation was fighting a battle against public prejudice which was difficult to win.

“I am afraid that the general public will mostly remember these bearded men talking about hitting women and praying to God to punish Sharon. But instead of playing the victim and being defensive it is better to welcome such initiatives… The main thing that this investigation will do is put the whole question of imams into context.”

A recent intelligence service report which suggested that young Muslims were being recruited at mosques for anti-western missions in Afghanistan and elsewhere also stirred up feelings.

The government is considering how it can school imams in Dutch values – including attitudes to homosexuality and women’s rights – and whether to license only those born in the Netherlands.

Tags: Dutch, Fears, Human, Inquiry, Into, Muslim, Population, Rights

Third SEC inquiry hits Raytheon

Raytheon, the troubled American defence contractor, yesterday said US financial regulator the SEC had opened an informal inquiry into its accounting practices – the third at the group in just two years.

The inquiry spooked investors on Wall Street who had hoped to leave the accounting scandals behind after a miserable year. Raytheon shares fell by 7% to $29.45 by mid-day.

Raytheon – which makes Tomahawk and Patriot missiles – said the investigation related to the booking of revenues at its commercial aircraft unit between 1997 and 2001. It has already restated revenue from the division to better reflect the timing of aircraft sales, but the fresh inquiry suggests the regulator still has concerns.

The Massachusetts-based group said it believed the accounting was accurate and that it would cooperate with the inquiry.

The company has reported losses in six of the past seven quarters and its shares are trading at more than a 20% discount to rivals such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

It was investigated by the SEC in 2001 amid allegations that it had hidden cost overruns at a construction unit it later sold. The group was also under investigation for the alleged violation of disclosure rules by briefing favoured analysts with information on the company’s outlook.

That was settled with a sanction last November, although Raytheon admitted no wrongdoing. The sanction led to the resignation of chief finance officer Frank Caine last month.

Raytheon also yesterday agreed to pay the US department of defence $4m to settle claims that it had incorrectly billed the government on the cost of aircraft insurance.

The company has been hampered by its non-defence operations. It was forced to resume building a pair of power plants in Massachusetts after the firm to which it sold its engineering arm in 2000, Washington Group, filed for bankruptcy.

Washington claimed Raytheon had hidden cost overruns, and the plants are now expected to cost $1.26bn – four times original estimates.

Tags: hits, Inquiry, Raytheon, Third

US home loan chief fired over audit inquiry

The American economy was given a jolt yesterday when the second largest mortgage financier, Freddie Mac, announced the departure of its top three executives amid an accounting scandal.

The surprise departures at the top of the company sparked serious fears over the management of its $1.3 trillion (£709bn) portfolio. The company holds 40% of the outstanding mortgages in the US with rival Fannie Mae.

Freddie Mac was set up by Congress in 1970 to create a steady and larger supply of funds to mortgage lenders. It buys mortgages and repackages them as securities that it sells to investors on Wall Street.

Its importance to the US economy was underlined as the dollar weakened and the Dow Jones industrial average dropped below 9,000 in afternoon trading yesterday.

Earlier this year, the Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, sounded alarm bells when he said he was concerned that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae might not have adequate capital.

The government agency that regulates Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae said it was sending officials into the company to start an investigation. The agency said the management shake-up “only goes part of the way toward correcting serious problems”.

Shares in Freddie Mac fell 13% by midday to $52, dragging mortgage providers and homebuilders lower with them.

The company said it had fired president and chief operating officer David Glenn for not fully cooperating with a review of its earnings statements between 2000 and 2002. Freddie Mac said in January it would restate its numbers for those years after hiring a new auditor to replace the now defunct Arthur Andersen.

The new auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, recommended it bring forward earnings from derivatives used heavily by the company to hedge against swings in interest rates.

The government-chartered company also announced the retirement of chairman and chief executive Leland Brendsel and the resignation of the chief financial officer, Vaughn Clarke.

The company added that Mr Glenn had been fired “because of serious questions as to the timeliness and completeness of his cooperation and candour with the board’s audit committee”. But it said it had not yet found any evidence of fraudulent behaviour.

Freddie Mac came under pressure when the agency that regulates the company, the office of federal housing enterprise oversight, sent a letter to the board at the weekend criticising management controls.

The company named Gregory Parseghian as replacement chief executive.

Tags: audit, Chief, fired, Home, Inquiry, Loan, Over

US regulator assists inquiry into Indigo

The US financial watchdog is believed to be helping the financial services authority with its inquiry into the stake building activities of Indigo Capital, a New York financial advisory company, which last week said it was considering an offer Regus, the troubled offices group.

News of cooperation between the securities and exchange commission and the FSA comes amid claims that Robert Bonnier, the former chief executive of dotcom flop Scoot.com, has close links to Indigo Capital.

The FSA is thought to be looking into Indigo’s stakebuilding in Regus, which has helped Regus shares double since the start of the year.

Last Tuesday, Indigo issued a statement in which said it was interested in exploring a “wide range of strategic, commercial and financing alternatives with the Regus, one of which may include a recommended takeover”.

On Wednesday it emerged that Indigo had been selling down its stake in Regus and on Thursday it revealed that it owned only 0.12% of its 12.7% stake.

Indigo said the balance was being held through a derivatives instrument known as “contracts for difference” taken out with spread betting company Cantor Fitzgerald.

Little is known about Indigo, which was set up in 1998 and became an active investor in internet companies such ci4net.com and Novix Media at the height of the 90s dotcom boom.

Its founders are Larry Bouts, a former chief executive of Six Flags Theme Parks and president of Toys R Us International, and Anthony Dubb, once a senior executive at investment bank CSFB.

The company occupies a suite in a brutal black skyscraper at the swanky address of 450 Park Avenue, New York. The building has seen better days. Alfred Dunhill, which occupied much of the store front at street level, has moved elsewhere. The entrance to the offices is undergoing refurbishment and an optimistic drawing of the plans sits in the temporary back entrance.

Indigo’s offices are on the 21st floor, a dimly lit and narrow corridor of suites most of which appear to be financial boutiques of one kind or another with names such as Lily Pond Capital and Blue Hill Holdings.

Indigo shares its suite with American Investments, behind a solid, powder blue door. The firm was not receptive to inquiries from the Guardian.

A secretary with her desk close to the door took a business card to one of the two frosted glass-encased offices visible from the door.

“The person you need to talk to is travelling,” the secretary explained as she returned, adding that she could not give out names or phone numbers.

Tags: assists, Indigo, Inquiry, Into, regulator

Review of Physics by Inquiry

Most of us have heard of the Socratic method of teaching at one time or another- it’s the technique Socrates famously used to educate Athenian youth back in ancient Greece. This method entails the teacher asking the student a series of leading questions sequenced in such a way that the student is able to discover knowledge for him or her self.

The Socratic Method is hardly new, but it can feel revolutionary when it is used well because it is difficult to do right and therefore not often used fully effectively. I would argue that Physics by Inquiry, a three volume textbook series by Lillian McDermott and the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington, makes spectacularly successful use of a modified form of the Socratic Method.

Unlike most textbooks, Physics by Inquiry directly gives the reader very little information. Instead, students using this text book are meant to work in groups with guidance from an instructor to answer leading questions through experiment and reasoning.

I first used Physics by Inquiry as a graduate student in a teacher education program, and I found it revelatory. It was exciting and challenging. Equations and calculations were not center stage- ideas were, and those ideas made sense. For the first time in my life, I liked physics. (Let me just pause here to say that my background is in biology and geology and I was studying to be a teacher in those areas, not physics.)

Physics by Inquiry is in fact written largely for pre-and in-service teachers who are furthering their own educations. It seems fairly clear that one point of the books’ is to show these current and future teachers just how effective inquiry-based learning can be. It’s a lesson that worked for me- I’ve enthusiastically taken many of the ideas in Physics by Inquiry to heart. The other target audience of these books is college students who lack a strong science background and want to learn introductory physics for any reason.

Although the physics explored in these books is fairly basic, and includes the same topics that you would expect to find in a high school physics course, including properties of matter, heat and temperature, magnets, electric circuits, light and optics, kinematics, and astronomy, the books are not really for high school students. From a purely intellectual perspective, the material would be suitable for a high school class, but it would not be practical in most classrooms because of the high level of independent work it requires from groups. For many, maybe most, high school teachers using the Physics by Inquiry curriculum in unmodified form would be a classroom management disaster. Using the ideas in the book in a modified format however, could be enormously successful.

(Although I wouldn’t want to use an unmodified Physics by Inquiry curriculum in most high schools, I would certainly recommend it to a homeschool group, if they have a teacher who is knowledgeable enough to use it.)

Another practical problem with the Physics by Inquiry format is that it is relatively time-consuming. For example, in the two one-semester college courses I took with this text, we covered a total of only three units. One could make a strong argument that quality of learning matters more that quantity of topics covered, but when students must take standardized exams at the end of the year, that argument begins to feel weak.

As a tutor, I try to be very mindful of the lessons I learned from these books: knowledge really is more powerful when it is created by the student and skilful questioning can lead to excellent results. Physics by Inquiry is a book that I can wholeheartedly recommend to teachers, homeschooling parents, and those curious about physics or the process of scientific inquiry.

Tags: Inquiry, Physics, Review

Inquiry Letter Template

An inquiry letter template helps one to ask queries related to a product, job, funds, promotional materials, etc. The inquiry letter format should contain the information in such a way that the recipient is encouraged to reply back. The inquiry letter format should be written in a friendly tome so that the recipient is happy to reply. You can read more on letter of interest.

Types of Inquiry Letter Templates

There are two types of inquiry letter templates that you can write. The first type is the solicited inquiry letter that is written in response to an advertisement or other direct communication. The second type of inquiry letter is unsolicited, wherein the letter is not sent in response to any communication. In this type of letter, you need to explain and state your reason of letter writing clearly.

Inquiry Letter Format

When you are writing an unsolicited inquiry letter you need to mention the advertisement or particular communication in response to which you are writing the letter. In case of unsolicited inquiry letter, you need to provide a detail information about yourself, your place of work (if required) and the reason as to why you need the particular information.

In the inquiry letter, you need to clearly mention the kind of information you need. And state the purpose of your writing the inquiry letter. Next, you need to explain why you have chosen to write to them. This information is necessary only in case of unsolicited letters and not for solicited letters in response to prior communication. Read more on letter writing.

You need to mention your contact details, that includes, address, telephone number, email address. This is required for the receiver to be able to contact you in response to your query. You need to thank the person who will take time to send you a reply for their help and time. You need to be polite as this will help you get your required information.

Inquiry Letter Template

Inquiry Letter Example for Job
Date
Your Address
Your Phone Number

Employer’s Name and Title
Employer’s Address

Dear (Name of hiring manager)

I have been informed of a job opportunity as (specific position or area you are applying for) by (name of referrer). I am very interested in such a position because [qualifications or related work & interests].

I am currently employed at (name of organization) as (title of position).

Sincerely,

Signature
Your name

Inquiry Letter Example for Funds
Date
Name
Title
Organization
Address
City, State, Zip
Website URL

Dear (Name of Authority)

The (name of your organization) seeks support of (amount) from the (grantor organization) for (type of support) of (project/charity). (Add a couple of sentences that describes how this project/charity fits with the grantor’s guidelines, goals, areas of interest)

Our organization, established in (date), serves the (community/ city/town) with these services: (list the type of services you offer). (Describe your mission, accomplishments, awards received or other organizational distinctions).

The project for which we are requesting funds will make a difference in the lives of (those who will be benefit) in the following way: (you need to state the line of action you will take with help of funds received).

We anticipate that the (name of project) will take approximately (amount of time), cost (the total cost of the project), and we expect to achieve the following: (you need to enlist a few concrete results).

At this time, we are pleased to have received (grant support, volunteer help, in-kind services, restricted pledges, etc.) for this project. We anticipate that support for (research, first year, first two phases, etc.) will come from (funding sources) and future, ongoing support for the project will be supplied by (you need to mention the limit of the funding sources or till the end of the project).

As you can see our (project) will (what you want to achieve) in an innovative and cost-effective manner. It will provide a valuable element to providing relief for (recipients). We are sure that you will find that our (project/ charity) fits with the mission of your foundation to (state the receiver’s foundation’s mission/goal/interests).

We invite you to visit our (organization/or project) at your convenience. We will be happy to submit a full proposal for your review or answer any questions that you may have. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Name, Title
Phone Number
Email Address

These were a few inquiry letter templates that will help you draft a meaningful letter. You can read more on sample letters asking for donations and samples of introduction letters.

You can find many inquiry letter samples online for free. I hope this article on inquiry letter templates has answered your query.

Tags: 'letter, Inquiry, Template

Friday, May 14th, 2010 Grants No Comments