Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Rotation of Auditors Improving Quality of Audits Essay
Rotation of Auditors Improving Quality of Audits - Essay Example Being faced by many of the threats the financial statements are deemed to provide true and fair view and audit of the financial statements depicts that whether the information provided in the financial statements are up to the standards upon which the financial statements are to be presented and issued. The quality of the audit is crucial for the integrity and reliability of the information provided and disclosed in the financial statements. With the continuous increase upon the integrity of the financial statements there are efforts made and put in to practice in order to provide high quality audit. Many of the legislations and regulations are formed to excel the quality of the audit so that the quality audit can enhance the integrity of the financial statements. There are many factors, which contributed towards the quality of the audit and their relation with the quality of financial statements, one of which is the rotation of the auditors. The independence of the auditors is one o f the major factor which reflects the quality of audit. The impact of the rotation of auditors upon the quality of audit ensuring auditor independence and how the factors affecting the auditors’ independence are tackled with rotation of audit is discussed. Importance of Audit Quality The quality of the audit is crucial for every user as the financial statements fulfilling the information requirement, which is different in every case. The importance of the transparency of information is critical as the users are dependent upon the provided information and that information is needed to be completely free of bias and should present the true and fair view of the company (Zabihollah, et al., 2003). The quality of the audit of the financial statements is decisive for every user as it is the quality of audit that depicts the dependency and reliability of the information provided in the financial statement. Regulations and Principals The importance of the audit is of utmost important as it elaborates the transparency and quality of the information that the company provides in its financial and non-financial statements (Anna & James, 2009). The information that is scrutinized in the audit process depicts the quality of the audit. The quality of audit is measured upon various techniques where the relation of the auditor is one of the major factors that result in the rotation of the auditors. The ethical implication of the audit and the principals provided by the international auditing and assurance standard board are issued in order to guide through the quality of audit. There are various legislations imposed in various countries where the rotation of the auditors is set as compulsory for the company. The importance of the audit is realized and various regulations were made and implemented. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has implemented laws that are mandatory to be followed where the rotation of the auditors are set to be followed by the companies . Corporate governance failure caused many of the scandals that gave rise to many of the regulations (Francine, 2011). In the corporate governance the best practice principals denotes the quality of audit to be enhanced when the rotation of the auditor is made after every three years. The corporate governance best practice is dedicated towards the operations of the company, which depicts the
The Psychology Of Writing Essay Example for Free
The Psychology Of Writing Essay In September 2004, I embarked upon a career opportunity that – I believed – was beyond my reach and capabilities. It was for the well-being of my family that I accepted the challenge. Almost immediately after starting the work, I was assigned a task that I truly believed I would fail at: it was the task of completing a technical solution that outlined the design installations of one of the countrys most secure facilities. I was required to not only learn the technical specifications of hundreds of communication devices, but also to describe that function in a manner in which any person from off the street, with or without a technical background, could pick up the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and completely maneuver the Network Operation Center (NOC), even though I myself had come from an Information Technology (IT) background.            A lot of my knowledge was gained through careful observation, question asking, and note taking. I worried each and every day about the consequences which would arise if I were unable to deliver. As one may assume, numerous meetings were conducted by the customers, expressing precisely the type of systems necessary to provide them with advanced applications and maximum flexibility for the capabilities of integration of tomorrows technologies. I learned a lot just by listening and recording staff meetings which were unclassified, so that I could take what I had learned and research the type of equipment needed to meet the customers requirements. I would then ask questions of more skilled individuals. For instance, â€Å"How would you do this?†. Or, â€Å"How would you do that?† I also asked many a â€Å"Why?† Since I was, in reality, lacking the proper academic background to execute these tasks, I used what I was good at: research and problem-solving. I began to put my facts down on paper, utilizing the manufacturers technical notes, the data received by more skilled persons, and information I had found using a tool that every household now uses, Google, to derive a Technical Solution and Installation Plan that received much praise and even a promotion!            I apologize if this sounds like a happy ending story, because its not. The research, and rewrite upon rewrite, and multiple revisions of even these Looking back, I wonder if the methods I employed would have been different if I had completed my education. But in the modern world in which we live, technology had given modern man many methods by which to learn and perform tasks once thought to be completely unavailable to people like myself.            I remember the day I first arrived in Colorado Springs. I only had a short visit scheduled, so I had to make the most of the trip. My flight landed just before midday on a Friday. I believe it was August, as the weather was pleasantly cool and sunny. Because I was sat in a window seat, I was able to get a good look at the city upon approach. From above the city, still in the air, what you first notice is what I like to refer to as â€Å"cookie cutter communities†. The scenery of the different neighborhoods looks as though God Himself once pressed a cookie cutter into the ground.  Due to the altitude of â€Å"The Springs†, as the locals call it, the air-craft inadvertently provided a touristic view of the city. One could not miss the world-famous Pikes Peak. If you recall your American Folk Song, â€Å"America†, then you know â€Å"Purple Mountains Majesty†. Well, Pikes Peak is what the song is all about, and I must admit that it is breathtakingly topped with snow-crested peaks even in July! As the plane continued its descent, â€Å"The Garden of the Gods†came into view, the large rocks seeming like giant clay boulders somehow naturally arranged in balance – as if by God.            Colorado Springs is not very large. The main road, IH-25 (or, as the locals call it, the â€Å"I†) is the only way in and out when traveling by car, and during the wetter months I have seen it closed from Trinidad (70 miles to the south) to Denver (70 miles to the north). The area is more for outdoorsy people, who enjoy skiing, fishing, hunting, and the same such. However, if your interest is in military history, you wont be let down. The Springs is home to three military bases, as well as the Air Force Academy, and also â€Å"NORAD†. Most people who are new to the area, or just visiting, find it much more rewarding simply driving to see it.  For instance, taking the â€Å"I†to 24W up into the mountains, you climb up to Manitou, a Norman Rockwell-type of picturesque town nestled into the scenery. This is one of my favorite places to go. Its old-time square consists of brick- and wood-fronted shops which melt into the scene like a painting. As you continue to travel west on 24, Pikes Peak Highway is just a few minutes ahead. Believe it or not, Santa is said to have a summer home here. To promote good behavior, parents are often heard exclaiming, â€Å"Santa can see you†!            At the beginning of my career, I decided that I wanted to do things that were not so common. The ambition to undertake such a mission was driven by the attitude that there is nothing like changing the world. To lay the foundation, I entered the military and successfully completed boot camp. Thereafter, I was sent to Ft. Benning, Georgia to begin â€Å"Jump School†. This is where you are sent to learn to become a paratrooper, the first step to sky-diving or, as it is otherwise referred to in the Military, â€Å"High Altitude Low-Out HALO†. The regimented course is approximately four weeks and consists of enduring hours of physical training, ground tower, and jump weeks. The curriculum involves various tasks which teach you the correct way to land, how to maneuver the chute while airborne, and much more. Each recruit is required to complete five jumps before he or she graduates and is allowed to pin on their jump wings. This event in particular was one of the key steps that propelled my career, as it in turn took me to Israel – one of my favorite places in the world.            Israel appeared like Mohammed in the desert. Herzliya, located on the central coastal strip, is a breath-taking city on the Mediterranean Sea. It does not take too long after arrival to begin to understand the way of life there – cameras are mounted everywhere, police presence is widespread, there are heavily-armed IDF forces on each and every corner, and Apache patrols go along the coastline every 15 minutes. However, taken through the eyes of the locals, the city is alive with the old and new worlds living in harmony. During my time there, I was able to visit Tel Aviv, Eilat, and Jerusalem.            Most alluring was the beauty of being surrounded by water. This permitted me to do a good amount of scuba-diving and fishing. Although Im no expert, the waters of the Middle East are by far, to me, the most enjoyable on that side of the world. The crystal-clear seas are closely regulated by the government, which prohibits commercial fishing within two miles of the shore and only allows freight shipments and related traffic on one side of the peninsula in order to avoid spills that would contaminate the surrounding outlets.  Looking back on these memories, it was not uncommon for all the mates to chip in and rent a boat to take out for a day of fishing and diving. Open-sea fishing may feel the same in all warm waters, but the difference with the Middle East is the ability to see 80 – 100 feet into the depths and watch the fish as they toy with your bait; not to mention that there is an upfront view of the unfamiliar predators of the Mediterranean! Having used mostly shrimp for bait, we caught a few different species and deep-fried them as soon as we returned to dry land.            The advantages of taking an online course are pretty straight-forward: not having to deal with traffic or parking, the ability to study from home or wherever an internet connection is located But, for me, the disadvantages are more abundant. For instance, in subjects that I am poor at (like this course), one is unable to link up with the instructor for assistance in acquiring a better understanding of what is being asked of you. Another disadvantage is not getting to know any classmates. There has always been an advantage in face-to-face study groups. I have found that sometimes you are able to get a better feel for a subject when working with your peers. For me, an online courses major benefit is convenience.            Online studies have revolutionized the education system, taking study to wherever the student is, but for those of us that have a long absence from school, online classes may not be the best choice. I find it very difficult on so many levels, not to mention very stressful, and seek only a passing grade, instead of the usable knowledge of the class. In conclusion, as you may have already gleaned from my essay, I find that the drawbacks outweigh the advantages. However, in pursuit of academic recognition, one does what one has to, in order to ameliorate ones life and that of ones family.            Institutes of higher education have transcended their traditional image as local and regional points of interest for audiences across national, international, and global arenas. This extended outreach poses a direct correlation in which the business of education has become an integrated asset in the business of doing business.  The introduction of global business ventures (such as Wal-Mart, Ikea, and Starbucks) have reinvented the traditionally local marketplaces and introduced super market places. One case in point is the â€Å"Super Wal-Mart†stores which cater to every need, from groceries to a department store with a pharmacy, vision center, portrait studio and hair salon. How exactly does this all tie into the business of education? I will address two significant elements: technology and management.            These colossal superstores are upheld, literally and figuratively, by an infrastructure of communication networks.  These networks include information systems that facilitate everything from inventory to purchasing. The ability to maintain these networks requires specialized, and in most cases, certified persons. The individuals, whether in-house or contracted, hold qualified certifications specific to such areas as computer science, networking, and database engineering. With the extent to which technology is driving the business of globalization, the business of education is directly impacted as students seek to arm themselves with the credentials necessary to secure a job within the overwhelming support service industry. An industry so competitive that, in order for the key players to secure the worthwhile contracts, recruitment of the most qualified is a must. These individuals are à ©lite students out of college and universities, or experienced professionals. Once employed, they must remain current with certifications as technologies grow and expand. This is why they engage in continuing education. Likewise, a clients infrastructure may grow and expand, thus calling for the support service to educate personnel accordingly. The realm of any business, big or small, is always changing.            Management, the second element, runs rampant amidst the entire scheme of it all. In order for businesses to be successful, much less remain on par, knowledgeable supervisors, managers, and directors are required. For these individuals, like their support service counterparts, to ensure progress and efficiency, their skills need to be constantly nourished. This capability has an impact on al business models, as employers must take into consideration incentive programs, such as â€Å"tuition reimbursement†, should they wish to sustain the attention of highly-skilled employees.  As students become workers, this benefit is a key point of interest during the job search. Employees who are not viewed as influential and are looking to advance skills may not be able to readily fund the costs of educational endeavors on their own. Should their duties and responsibilities be impacted by technological advancements, not being able to fully comprehend and take to the new changes can run the risk of losing their jobs. In turn, companies are faced with a dilemma in stream-lining the guidelines for qualification of educational reimbursement, while educational institutions are faced with the means of offering tuition assistance in order to attract students. Thus the pursuit of high learning has become a highly evolved business, dependent on the very same support service personnel.            Like the superstores, schools are revamping their own infrastructure of communication networks and entering the business of globalization via online and virtual classrooms, courtesy of the most rampant network to date – the Internet. In essence, the effect of education absorbed by a business creates a boomerang effect, reciprocating the prospects for institutions across the entire academic spectrum.
Monday, October 14, 2019
Cultural Identity and Belonging in Muslims
Cultural Identity and Belonging in Muslims Religious conversion, cultural identity and national belonging: The world of Bulgarian Muslims (Pomaks). Introduction It is always interesting to immerse in the mysterious past and to discover how the sense of national identity is created and transformed over the years. Throughout olden times and until now, cultural margins have shrunk or expanded, established nations and minorities within these have interacted with and influenced each other, religious and cultural conversions have frequently taken place and in the melting pot of history new distinctive uniqueness has begun to exist. This is particularly valid when the case of Bulgarian Muslims is discussed. Moreover, it is important to recognise here that the world of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks has been a subject of endless speculations and ethnic and political claims over the years and it is still very much unknown to the Western European ethnological and historical research literature. Much of the translated work that refers to the Pomaks is from Greek, Serbian, Turkish or Macedonian origin. Therefore it is, fair to say that the story of this Muslim enclave that inhibits mostly Bulgarian territories and speaks Bulgarian language, must be considered from a Bulgarian point of view and this is the main aim here. Consequently, this essay will examine the world of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, their religious conversion from Christianity to Islam and the formation and transformation of their cultural identity and sense of national belonging. To accomplish all this, the essay will firstly discuss the religious conversion of the Pomaks, its background, character, mode and outcomes and how it has laid the foundations of Bulgarian Muslims’ cultural identity. In addition, this paper will comment on the transformation of the cultural identity and sense of national belonging of Bulgarian Muslims. Finally, it will conclude with thoughts on self-perception, perception of others and future hopes. Definition of the term Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks Before elaborating further on all abovementioned points, there is a need to establish and define the term Bulgarian Muslims and describe it in Bulgarian context. In order to achieve this, two reliable sources will be cited. Commenting on the issue of cultural belonging and religious identity of Muslims in Bulgaria, Kemal Karpat, a Turkish historian and researcher, states that: The Muslim identity of these populations consisted outwardly of certain objective symbols and acts such as names and ritualsand at their place of origin they tended to identify themselves with Islam in terms of social behaviour, rather than in terms of a political systemand possessed a passive communal Muslim identity (1990, pp. 131-132). In his The hijra from Russia and the Balkans: the process of self-definition in the late Ottoman state, he argues that the largest population group â€Å"in the area that is now Bulgaria†, was the Muslim population group. In terms of spoken language, he endorses that â€Å"they spoke Slavic†(1990, pp.132-134). In his Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, pp. 41-62), the well-known Bulgarian historian, researcher and writer Hristo Krasin, presents a different point of view to that of Kemal Karpat. He argues that all modern Bulgarian population has a strong Bulgarian ethnic origin and comprises of four groups. The first group consists of Bulgarians, who speak Bulgarian language and are Eastern Orthodox Christians. The second one consists of Bulgarians, who recognise themselves as Bulgarian speaking Muslims with Bulgarian or Turkish national identity. The third one consists of Bulgarian speaking Muslims, who recognise themselves as ethnic Turks because their Bulgarian national identity was partially erased over the centuries due to the aggressive assimilation politic of the Turkish Empire. The last group consists of Bulgarian individuals, who speak Bulgarian and Turkish languages. They recognise themselves as ethnic Turks, whose religions are Christianity and Islam and whose Bulgarian national identity was fully erased under centuries of Turkish Islamic brutality in Bulgaria. This classification of ethnic and religious groups only appears to be straightforward. In the context of the tricky ethic and religious relationships in Bulgaria and in the Balkans, nothing is ever simple. Hence, the purpose of this essay is not to involve the reader in a discussion of the suggested categorisation or its validity or reliability but to establish some clarity into the complicated issue of ethnicity and identity of the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims and their ethnic, cultural and national identity and self-perception. Subsequently, this paper will confine itself to the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, further referred to as Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. Religious conversion: Pomaks until 1878 As it already beginning to emerge, the case of the Pomaks is complicated and a number of debates around it, display very strong positions and conflicting opinions. In order to appreciate all points of view and in search for the truth, it is imperative to consider the historical background of the issue. The existence of closed Muslim societies in Bulgaria is the direct inheritance of five centuries long Turkish rule over the Balkan Peninsula (Todorova, 1998, p.3). Even though there is no reliable data or figures to inform of population characteristics or major population shifts, some research has been done and there are number of existing theories that explain the size and grouping of Muslim population on the Peninsula. In his Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, p. 23), Hristo Krasin has attempted to assess the character and the effects of these movements. He claims that there were not any significant population transfers from Anatolia to the Balkans between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries and that the military formation send to take the Peninsula over, comprised only of soldiers and there no women travelling with the army. In her Identity (Trans) Formation among Bulgarian Muslims, Maria Todorova, a researcher from The University of California (1998, p.4) argues that the â€Å"chief historiographical controversy centres on the explanations for the sizeable Muslim population in the Balkans: Colonisation versus Conversion theory†. Furthermore, she suggests that â€Å"by the sixteenth century the settler colonisation process had stopped and yet the percentage of Muslims in the region continued to grow. Thus, the hypothesis offered is that â€Å"there were a great number of personal conversions to Islam among the non-Muslim population of the Balkans, respectively Bulgaria†(Todorova, 1998, p.6). In addition, a whole range of reliable academic research and publications from Bulgarian and Turkish authors, such as Omer Barkan from Istanbul University, Elena Grozdanova from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Albanian historian Sami Pulaha (all cited in Todorova, 1998, pp. 2-5), refer to data to evidence rapid Muslim population growth in Bulgaria between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries due either colonisation or conversion. In an attempt to join this debate and in discussion of the concrete but complex case of the Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, it must be suggested here that although there is evidence to support both theories, the majority of all available sources, also supported by official documents and survived the time registers of the Ottoman empire, shape the idea that religious conversion on a massive scale took place in Bulgaria and respectively in the Balkans (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). The question is how the conversion from Christianity to Islam was carried out and the answer to this question is directly connected with Pomaks’ self-identification as Muslims and consequently gives some light into their actions and behavioural characteristics as citizens of the Ottoman Empire until the nineteenth century and independent Bulgaria after that. To discuss the mode of the religious conversion of the Pomaks and emphasise its importance for the formation of their cultural identity and national belonging, it must be made clear here that â€Å"conversion may occur in one or more of three ways: through voluntary association, by pressure, and by assimilation. Syncretism and strong cultural resistance can also complicate the conversion process†(The Applied History Research group, 2000, pp.1-3). There is another raging debate in Bulgarian and Balkan historiographical research literature about the mode of Pomaks’ conversion to Islam and the co-existence of Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims. On the one hand, there are these, who argue that the conversion was forced upon the Christian population of Bulgaria and over the centuries, and especially the seventeen century, there was a mass conversion to Islam in across the country and especially in the mountain Rodopi region. There is a huge amount of literature, both academic and journalistic, supported with reliable and substantial evidence that the alleged obligatory conversion took place. In his Genocide and Holocaust against Bulgarians (2006, p.63), Bulgarian academic historian and writer Georgi Voinov claims that the systematic and focused compulsory conversion to Islam was one of the favourite methods of control and ruling in the Ottoman Empire, well known for its strong assimilation aspirations in order to promote pan-Turkism. To sustain his assertions, Voinov cites numerous sources, based on authentic literature, written by survivors or witnesses from fourteenth to eighteenth centuries. He also claims that there are official registers of the Ottoman Empire that had also captured those events and give objective information and statistics of all the atrocities that took place in the name of Islam and in order to erase Bulgarian national identity among the Bulgarian population (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). All abovementioned sources affirm that Islam in Bulgaria was not accepted voluntary but under duress. In the History Reader: The Rodopi mountain through the centuries (1966, p. 78), Bulgarian historian Peter Petrov cites a source from the sixteenth century that talks of 325 thousand young Bulgarian youths forcefully converted to Islam and taken to Anatolia to commence military service in the Turkish army. Only the boy’s number was known, for the girls, no-one has ever known. It is claimed, that conversion took place in 1515 and under the command of Selim Pasha. There are also endless lists from administrative Ottoman registers reporting evidence that Islam was not accepted on voluntary basis. Mass conversions took place in 1620, 1633, 1669, 1705, 1720, 1803, all of those through fire and sword, drowning in blood any resistance from the local Christian population (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). On the other hand, there are those academic writers and journalists, who for one reason or another and in an attempt to politicise the issue of Bulgarian Muslims, are nowadays trying to reassess historical events. Special attention is given to the religious and cultural conversion in Bulgaria. In the recently published second edition of his book The Mohammedan Bulgarians (2007, pp. 5-12), Bulgarian researcher and writer Stojan Raichevski asserts that change to Islam was forced upon the Christian Bulgarians by the power of the sword to a minimal degree but there were many other, more important reasons and economic factors, that played a key role, such as preferential taxation and trading agreements for Muslims in the Empire, the greed of the Greek Orthodox clergy, the conflict between the Bogomils and the Orthodox Church, etc. In addition, Kemal Karpat comments that at the time when their land was conquered, the Slavic speaking Muslims were under the authority of their local feudal lords and accepted Islam as the new faith as it supposedly was close to their native faith of Bogomilism, a mixture of Christianity, paganism and Manichaeism. In doing so, they hoped to preserve their land holdings and ethnic identity. Furthermore, according to the Applied History Research group of the University of Calgary (2000, p.1), â€Å"although conversion by pressure cannot be termed voluntary, the degree of force and coercion varies greatly. Indeed, military conquest was typically followed by the application of subtler pressures, such as commercial or judicial sanctions, to enforce the requirement of the new rulers†. Economic pressure was just as effective as an unrestrained military subjugation. Thinking objectively and considering all points of view and available data, one does not doubt here that many factors acted as an incentive to mass Islamic conversions in Bulgaria. What is interesting to communicate through this piece of work is that the combination of the different modes of conversion: by voluntary association, by pressure, and by assimilation, was accompanied with syncretism that determined some degree of cultural adaptation. It did, in turn, also provoke fierce cultural resistance and martyrdom from a large part of the Christian population. Hence, here was the historical picture in Bulgaria. On the one hand, those Bulgarians, who surrendered their religion for one reason or another, became Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. They continued speaking Bulgarian language and the local area dialect, build their houses in Bulgarian architectural traditions, saved some elements of their old dress code, continued to recognise themselves as Bulgarians but built mosques, celebrated Eid and enjoyed preferential treatment from the Ottoman rulers. However, over the centuries they were exposed to the influences of their adopted Islamic religion and the aggressive pan-Turkism promoted in the Ottoman Empire and through blending of various aspects of different cultural customs and religious rituals or syncretism, somewhat new cultural arrangements took place. Bulgarian Muslims adapted culturally to the life in the Empire and although preserving their Slavic language and some sense of Bulgarian national identity, their levels of cultural adaptation reached much greater heights than those among the Christian Bulgarian population. Due to this fact and over the centuries, the Pomaks have tried to self-define themselves in terms of national conciseness and have become vulnerable to influences and an object of hatred or even political struggle. On the other hand, while Bulgarian Muslims were going through the process of cultural assimilation, the larger part of the Bulgarian population withstood the pressure, continued to observe their faith and traditions, regularly rebelled against the Turkish rulers and took part in more than fifty military conquests against the Turks, led by different European rulers. All Bulgarian uprisings against the Ottoman Sultans, fourteen in total in Bulgaria itself (Voinov, 2006, p.26), were drowned in blood. What needs clarification here is one, not very well popularised fact: Bulgarian Muslims took active part in the suppression and crushing of many of the rebellions. This, in turn, raises many questions, with one most imperative. What were the reasons that in the same ethnic population group, some of its members took the way of conversion and cultural adaptation but the others chose cultural resistance, martyrdom and self-martyrdom? How could these two groups live in relative peace under Ottoman rule but when an uprising against the Turks took place, Bulgarian Muslims ferociously and viciously attacked their Christian neighbours and fought on the side of the Turks, committing acts of unheard of cruelty and brutality? Their participation in the crushing of the April uprising of 1876 is notorious and it was described by the American writer and journalist Janarius Aloysius McGahan, who was one of the greatest war correspondents in the nineteenth century. In his American witness (2002, 3rd Ed.), Bulgarian historian Teodor Dimitrov has published McGahan’s notes about the atrocities in Batak, Bulgaria, and they read: â€Å"We spoke with many women, who had been through all stages of torture without the last one, death. The procedure, as it seemed, was the following: the Turks would take a woman, undress her, putting aside her valuables, gang-rape her and the last one, who had her, would kill her or let her go, depending on his mood†. What McGahan does not note here is that the Turks were not alone in the slaughter of the rebels. They are aided by their helpers’, the local Pomak population, Greeks and other small ethnic groups. Thus, Christian Bulgarians fought for freedom, while Muslim Bulgarians took part in the massacre of their uprising. What could have possibly provoked someone to behave in such a way? According to Doinov et al. (2001, p.112), â€Å"the shown cruelty was an outburst of the deep national and religious hatred against the oppressed nationalities in the Ottoman Empire, that has been groomed and encouraged for centuries by the ruling powers†. However, something else was at work there too. Kemal Karpat (1990, p.136) explains that Balkan Muslims, although living in a hostile Christian European world, remained largely apolitical. However, their â€Å"passive cultural-religious consciousness was easily converted to a dynamic Muslim identity when the circumstances required†. Perhaps when Bulgarian Muslims were faced with an unconditional act of resistance in the â€Å"most dramatic form: suicide and self-martyrdom†(2000, p.3), those acted as catalyst and the Pomaks replied with repression and brutality. Ekaterina Peychinova, Director of the Museum of History in Batak describes what drove the oppressors mad: For three days and three nights the people inside the church held together, and the shooting outside did not stop for a minute. At the end of the third day they gave in and opened the gates of the church. But then they had only two options: either become Muslims or die. Every single one of them chose death. (cited in Ivanova, 2008, p.1) The horrific power of those events and the depth of feelings and emotions are overwhelming. Keeping in mind that Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims are from the same ethnic origin and the same blood flows in their veins, have religious and cultural conversion, syncretism and assimilation have changed the latter so much that they could commit such acts and have identity switch over, allowing for full degradation of human values? This essay does not have the ambitious goal to answer all those questions. History gives the answers and it will do the same here too. Many years have gone since those ghastly days and Pomaks’ sense of cultural identity and national belonging has evolved and changed again as Bulgarian Muslims themselves were at the receiving end of numerous assimilation governmental campaigns and strategies from 1878 until now. Cultural identity and national belonging of Bulgarian Pomaks Due to the fact that the Bulgarian speaking Muslims took an active part in the suppressing the April uprising of 1876, they did not enjoy friendly treatment from their Christian neighbours. With the advancement of the Russian armies in 1878, retaliation began and a substantial part of the Pomaks immigrated to the Ottoman empire, refusing to live under the rule of the â€Å"giaurs†or infidels. Many others took part in the Rodopi mutiny and lived in the so-called Pomak republic for about eight years until 1886, when the participating villages were included in the Ottoman Empire but only until the Balkan wars (Todorva, 1998, p.9). Furthermore, in the Ottoman Population: 1830-1914 (1985, p.78), Kemal Karpat cites Ottoman statistics, indicating that the total population of the Empire rose by about 40% in the period 1860-1878 due to coercive measures by Russia and Bulgaria. He mentions that among the Balkan migrants there were large groups of Slavic-speaking Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Montenegrins and Pomaks with a negative sense of ethnic identity, as they considered themselves as Muslims but not Osmanlis (Turks). Thus, judging by the actions of the Pomaks, the question that must be asked here is: did the Pomaks have a Turkish or Bulgarian cultural and national identity at the end of the nineteen and beginning of twentieth century and is it possible to differentiate between religious and ethnic belonging? The Pomaks, who immigrated to the Ottoman Empire, had their cultural identity politicised and defined as Muslim and Turkish under the influence of the local political and ethnic culture (Karpat, 1990, p.137). Unfortunately, the Pomaks, who stayed in Bulgaria, did not have the opportunity to decide for themselves freely because during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, they were subjected to a number of keen campaigns to accept and recognise them as part of the Bulgarian nation or â€Å"narod†, starting from 1920-s and continuing until the mid-80-s. In 1942, the first ever mass attempt to change the names of the Bulgarian Muslims to Bulgarian names took place. It was a result of the work of the Pomaks’ own organisation, called â€Å"Rodina†or Motherland. Consisting mainly of teachers, â€Å"Rodina†strove to improve the position of the Pomaks in Bulgarian society and to save them from the growing resentment and marginalisation. In the context of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom (1878 – 1944) and its nationalistic ambitions and assimilative tendencies, it is important to acknowledge here that Motherlands’ actions were justified in terms of seeking a national, cultural and linguistic unity of the Bulgarian society and the difficulties that the Pomaks could have faced, if tried to fit in that society. What is questionable here is the Pomaks desire to fit in. Although the Pomaks have, at that point, lost the very close contact with their original cultural authority, the Ottoman Empire, they were still in favour of their religious affiliation and were not willing to adapt to the fresh, language-based identity actively promoted by the modern Bulgarian state at that time (Todorova, 1998, p. 11). Another problem here is the attitude of the Christian Bulgarians, whose national consciousness was determined by religious and linguistic boundaries. Were they ready to forget the Ottoman rule and April 1876 and to accept the Pomaks as part of the Bulgarian nation and allow assimilation? Could adaptation and adoption take place and the complex issue of national identity, belonging and unity be resolved peacefully and once and for all? What is better: common national identity and national unity or multi-cultural society? During communist rule in the 1960-s, 1970-s and 1980-s, various Bulgarian governments tried to resolve the issue through numerous heavy-handed assimilation campaigns, when all Muslim names were changed to Bulgarian names, an attempt was made to form a united Bulgarian nation in order to neutralise nationalistic ambitions and claims from neighbouring Turkey. After the democratic reforms from 1989, all ethnic and religious groups in Bulgaria gained the freedom to self-identify themselves and promote their national and religious distinctiveness. All Muslim names were restored and seemingly the great effort to create a united Bulgarian national identity had ended. Hence, the national identity and cultural belonging of the Pomaks are somewhat fluid and non-defined, and the coming generations will have the chance to accomplish the process of integration or affiliation as they choose. It is, however, ultimate to accept the lessons of history and to abolish all attempts to forcefully create a single identity with identical religious or national characteristics. Cultural conversion through co-operation and co-existence is frequently welcome by small or big population groups, whilst conversion by pressure, conflict and aggressive assimilation is rejected and leads to confusion, hatred and frequently violent resistance. Conclusion In conclusion, it must be recognised here that the case of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks is of complex nature and the issue of defining their national identity and cultural belonging is still unresolved. There are many more questions to ask and answer and many more avenues to explore in order to establish which one of the national identity constituents is the most influential and possess the ultimate formative power. Consequently, it is the greatest regret of this work that it is impossible to analyse or develop fully all themes, ideas and debates in connection with the cultural identity, national belonging and self-perception of the Pomaks, when the number of words is restricted and there is lack of the research available. However, one humbly hopes to have offered here, merely an attempt of discussion on the important issues of cultural and religious identity and how they shape the very centre of the human concept of self. Finally, it must be emphasised here that the writing of this essay has been a vast learning experience for the author, an opportunity to study, investigate and explore the world of Bulgarian Muslims and be taught lessons that put historical and contemporary events into perspective. Bibliography Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1982). History of Bulgaria. Sofia: BAN Press, vol. 3-7. Dimitrov, T. (2002). American witness. 3rd Ed. Geneva: Geneva press. Doinov, D., Jechev, N. Kosev, K. (2001). The April uprising and the fate of the Bulgarian nation. Sofia: Academic Press â€Å"Professor Marin Drinov†. Ivanova, M. (2008). St. Nedelya church in Batak. Available from: http://www.pravoslavieto.com. (Accessed: 12 April 2008). Karpat, K. (1985). Ottoman Population: 1830-1914. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Karpat, K. (1990). The hijra from Russia and the Balkans: the process of self-definition in the late Ottoman state. In: Eickelman, D. Piscatori, J. (Ed.). Muslim Travellers: Pilgrimage, migration, and the religious imagination. Los Angeles: University of California Press, Chapter 7, pp. 131-152. Krasin, H. (2007). Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula. (Turskite porazii v Bulgaria i na Balkanskia Poluostrov). Sofia: Svetovit Press. Petrov, P. (1966). History Reader: The Rodopi mountain through the centuries. Sofia: BKP Press. Rajcevski, S. (2004). The Mohammedan Bulgarians (Pomaks). (Balgarite Mohamedani). Sofia: Bulgarian Bestseller Press. The Applied History Research Group. (2000) Old World Contacts. Available from: http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history. (Accessed: 14 April 2008). Todorova, M. (1998). Identity (Trans) Formation among Bulgarian Muslims. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. Voinov, G. (2006). Genocide and Holocaust against Bulgarians. (Genotsidad i Holokostat sreshtu Balgarite.) Sofia: Arateb Press. Cultural Identity and Belonging in Muslims Cultural Identity and Belonging in Muslims Religious conversion, cultural identity and national belonging: The world of Bulgarian Muslims (Pomaks). Introduction It is always interesting to immerse in the mysterious past and to discover how the sense of national identity is created and transformed over the years. Throughout olden times and until now, cultural margins have shrunk or expanded, established nations and minorities within these have interacted with and influenced each other, religious and cultural conversions have frequently taken place and in the melting pot of history new distinctive uniqueness has begun to exist. This is particularly valid when the case of Bulgarian Muslims is discussed. Moreover, it is important to recognise here that the world of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks has been a subject of endless speculations and ethnic and political claims over the years and it is still very much unknown to the Western European ethnological and historical research literature. Much of the translated work that refers to the Pomaks is from Greek, Serbian, Turkish or Macedonian origin. Therefore it is, fair to say that the story of this Muslim enclave that inhibits mostly Bulgarian territories and speaks Bulgarian language, must be considered from a Bulgarian point of view and this is the main aim here. Consequently, this essay will examine the world of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, their religious conversion from Christianity to Islam and the formation and transformation of their cultural identity and sense of national belonging. To accomplish all this, the essay will firstly discuss the religious conversion of the Pomaks, its background, character, mode and outcomes and how it has laid the foundations of Bulgarian Muslims’ cultural identity. In addition, this paper will comment on the transformation of the cultural identity and sense of national belonging of Bulgarian Muslims. Finally, it will conclude with thoughts on self-perception, perception of others and future hopes. Definition of the term Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks Before elaborating further on all abovementioned points, there is a need to establish and define the term Bulgarian Muslims and describe it in Bulgarian context. In order to achieve this, two reliable sources will be cited. Commenting on the issue of cultural belonging and religious identity of Muslims in Bulgaria, Kemal Karpat, a Turkish historian and researcher, states that: The Muslim identity of these populations consisted outwardly of certain objective symbols and acts such as names and ritualsand at their place of origin they tended to identify themselves with Islam in terms of social behaviour, rather than in terms of a political systemand possessed a passive communal Muslim identity (1990, pp. 131-132). In his The hijra from Russia and the Balkans: the process of self-definition in the late Ottoman state, he argues that the largest population group â€Å"in the area that is now Bulgaria†, was the Muslim population group. In terms of spoken language, he endorses that â€Å"they spoke Slavic†(1990, pp.132-134). In his Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, pp. 41-62), the well-known Bulgarian historian, researcher and writer Hristo Krasin, presents a different point of view to that of Kemal Karpat. He argues that all modern Bulgarian population has a strong Bulgarian ethnic origin and comprises of four groups. The first group consists of Bulgarians, who speak Bulgarian language and are Eastern Orthodox Christians. The second one consists of Bulgarians, who recognise themselves as Bulgarian speaking Muslims with Bulgarian or Turkish national identity. The third one consists of Bulgarian speaking Muslims, who recognise themselves as ethnic Turks because their Bulgarian national identity was partially erased over the centuries due to the aggressive assimilation politic of the Turkish Empire. The last group consists of Bulgarian individuals, who speak Bulgarian and Turkish languages. They recognise themselves as ethnic Turks, whose religions are Christianity and Islam and whose Bulgarian national identity was fully erased under centuries of Turkish Islamic brutality in Bulgaria. This classification of ethnic and religious groups only appears to be straightforward. In the context of the tricky ethic and religious relationships in Bulgaria and in the Balkans, nothing is ever simple. Hence, the purpose of this essay is not to involve the reader in a discussion of the suggested categorisation or its validity or reliability but to establish some clarity into the complicated issue of ethnicity and identity of the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims and their ethnic, cultural and national identity and self-perception. Subsequently, this paper will confine itself to the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, further referred to as Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. Religious conversion: Pomaks until 1878 As it already beginning to emerge, the case of the Pomaks is complicated and a number of debates around it, display very strong positions and conflicting opinions. In order to appreciate all points of view and in search for the truth, it is imperative to consider the historical background of the issue. The existence of closed Muslim societies in Bulgaria is the direct inheritance of five centuries long Turkish rule over the Balkan Peninsula (Todorova, 1998, p.3). Even though there is no reliable data or figures to inform of population characteristics or major population shifts, some research has been done and there are number of existing theories that explain the size and grouping of Muslim population on the Peninsula. In his Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, p. 23), Hristo Krasin has attempted to assess the character and the effects of these movements. He claims that there were not any significant population transfers from Anatolia to the Balkans between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries and that the military formation send to take the Peninsula over, comprised only of soldiers and there no women travelling with the army. In her Identity (Trans) Formation among Bulgarian Muslims, Maria Todorova, a researcher from The University of California (1998, p.4) argues that the â€Å"chief historiographical controversy centres on the explanations for the sizeable Muslim population in the Balkans: Colonisation versus Conversion theory†. Furthermore, she suggests that â€Å"by the sixteenth century the settler colonisation process had stopped and yet the percentage of Muslims in the region continued to grow. Thus, the hypothesis offered is that â€Å"there were a great number of personal conversions to Islam among the non-Muslim population of the Balkans, respectively Bulgaria†(Todorova, 1998, p.6). In addition, a whole range of reliable academic research and publications from Bulgarian and Turkish authors, such as Omer Barkan from Istanbul University, Elena Grozdanova from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Albanian historian Sami Pulaha (all cited in Todorova, 1998, pp. 2-5), refer to data to evidence rapid Muslim population growth in Bulgaria between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries due either colonisation or conversion. In an attempt to join this debate and in discussion of the concrete but complex case of the Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, it must be suggested here that although there is evidence to support both theories, the majority of all available sources, also supported by official documents and survived the time registers of the Ottoman empire, shape the idea that religious conversion on a massive scale took place in Bulgaria and respectively in the Balkans (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). The question is how the conversion from Christianity to Islam was carried out and the answer to this question is directly connected with Pomaks’ self-identification as Muslims and consequently gives some light into their actions and behavioural characteristics as citizens of the Ottoman Empire until the nineteenth century and independent Bulgaria after that. To discuss the mode of the religious conversion of the Pomaks and emphasise its importance for the formation of their cultural identity and national belonging, it must be made clear here that â€Å"conversion may occur in one or more of three ways: through voluntary association, by pressure, and by assimilation. Syncretism and strong cultural resistance can also complicate the conversion process†(The Applied History Research group, 2000, pp.1-3). There is another raging debate in Bulgarian and Balkan historiographical research literature about the mode of Pomaks’ conversion to Islam and the co-existence of Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims. On the one hand, there are these, who argue that the conversion was forced upon the Christian population of Bulgaria and over the centuries, and especially the seventeen century, there was a mass conversion to Islam in across the country and especially in the mountain Rodopi region. There is a huge amount of literature, both academic and journalistic, supported with reliable and substantial evidence that the alleged obligatory conversion took place. In his Genocide and Holocaust against Bulgarians (2006, p.63), Bulgarian academic historian and writer Georgi Voinov claims that the systematic and focused compulsory conversion to Islam was one of the favourite methods of control and ruling in the Ottoman Empire, well known for its strong assimilation aspirations in order to promote pan-Turkism. To sustain his assertions, Voinov cites numerous sources, based on authentic literature, written by survivors or witnesses from fourteenth to eighteenth centuries. He also claims that there are official registers of the Ottoman Empire that had also captured those events and give objective information and statistics of all the atrocities that took place in the name of Islam and in order to erase Bulgarian national identity among the Bulgarian population (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). All abovementioned sources affirm that Islam in Bulgaria was not accepted voluntary but under duress. In the History Reader: The Rodopi mountain through the centuries (1966, p. 78), Bulgarian historian Peter Petrov cites a source from the sixteenth century that talks of 325 thousand young Bulgarian youths forcefully converted to Islam and taken to Anatolia to commence military service in the Turkish army. Only the boy’s number was known, for the girls, no-one has ever known. It is claimed, that conversion took place in 1515 and under the command of Selim Pasha. There are also endless lists from administrative Ottoman registers reporting evidence that Islam was not accepted on voluntary basis. Mass conversions took place in 1620, 1633, 1669, 1705, 1720, 1803, all of those through fire and sword, drowning in blood any resistance from the local Christian population (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). On the other hand, there are those academic writers and journalists, who for one reason or another and in an attempt to politicise the issue of Bulgarian Muslims, are nowadays trying to reassess historical events. Special attention is given to the religious and cultural conversion in Bulgaria. In the recently published second edition of his book The Mohammedan Bulgarians (2007, pp. 5-12), Bulgarian researcher and writer Stojan Raichevski asserts that change to Islam was forced upon the Christian Bulgarians by the power of the sword to a minimal degree but there were many other, more important reasons and economic factors, that played a key role, such as preferential taxation and trading agreements for Muslims in the Empire, the greed of the Greek Orthodox clergy, the conflict between the Bogomils and the Orthodox Church, etc. In addition, Kemal Karpat comments that at the time when their land was conquered, the Slavic speaking Muslims were under the authority of their local feudal lords and accepted Islam as the new faith as it supposedly was close to their native faith of Bogomilism, a mixture of Christianity, paganism and Manichaeism. In doing so, they hoped to preserve their land holdings and ethnic identity. Furthermore, according to the Applied History Research group of the University of Calgary (2000, p.1), â€Å"although conversion by pressure cannot be termed voluntary, the degree of force and coercion varies greatly. Indeed, military conquest was typically followed by the application of subtler pressures, such as commercial or judicial sanctions, to enforce the requirement of the new rulers†. Economic pressure was just as effective as an unrestrained military subjugation. Thinking objectively and considering all points of view and available data, one does not doubt here that many factors acted as an incentive to mass Islamic conversions in Bulgaria. What is interesting to communicate through this piece of work is that the combination of the different modes of conversion: by voluntary association, by pressure, and by assimilation, was accompanied with syncretism that determined some degree of cultural adaptation. It did, in turn, also provoke fierce cultural resistance and martyrdom from a large part of the Christian population. Hence, here was the historical picture in Bulgaria. On the one hand, those Bulgarians, who surrendered their religion for one reason or another, became Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. They continued speaking Bulgarian language and the local area dialect, build their houses in Bulgarian architectural traditions, saved some elements of their old dress code, continued to recognise themselves as Bulgarians but built mosques, celebrated Eid and enjoyed preferential treatment from the Ottoman rulers. However, over the centuries they were exposed to the influences of their adopted Islamic religion and the aggressive pan-Turkism promoted in the Ottoman Empire and through blending of various aspects of different cultural customs and religious rituals or syncretism, somewhat new cultural arrangements took place. Bulgarian Muslims adapted culturally to the life in the Empire and although preserving their Slavic language and some sense of Bulgarian national identity, their levels of cultural adaptation reached much greater heights than those among the Christian Bulgarian population. Due to this fact and over the centuries, the Pomaks have tried to self-define themselves in terms of national conciseness and have become vulnerable to influences and an object of hatred or even political struggle. On the other hand, while Bulgarian Muslims were going through the process of cultural assimilation, the larger part of the Bulgarian population withstood the pressure, continued to observe their faith and traditions, regularly rebelled against the Turkish rulers and took part in more than fifty military conquests against the Turks, led by different European rulers. All Bulgarian uprisings against the Ottoman Sultans, fourteen in total in Bulgaria itself (Voinov, 2006, p.26), were drowned in blood. What needs clarification here is one, not very well popularised fact: Bulgarian Muslims took active part in the suppression and crushing of many of the rebellions. This, in turn, raises many questions, with one most imperative. What were the reasons that in the same ethnic population group, some of its members took the way of conversion and cultural adaptation but the others chose cultural resistance, martyrdom and self-martyrdom? How could these two groups live in relative peace under Ottoman rule but when an uprising against the Turks took place, Bulgarian Muslims ferociously and viciously attacked their Christian neighbours and fought on the side of the Turks, committing acts of unheard of cruelty and brutality? Their participation in the crushing of the April uprising of 1876 is notorious and it was described by the American writer and journalist Janarius Aloysius McGahan, who was one of the greatest war correspondents in the nineteenth century. In his American witness (2002, 3rd Ed.), Bulgarian historian Teodor Dimitrov has published McGahan’s notes about the atrocities in Batak, Bulgaria, and they read: â€Å"We spoke with many women, who had been through all stages of torture without the last one, death. The procedure, as it seemed, was the following: the Turks would take a woman, undress her, putting aside her valuables, gang-rape her and the last one, who had her, would kill her or let her go, depending on his mood†. What McGahan does not note here is that the Turks were not alone in the slaughter of the rebels. They are aided by their helpers’, the local Pomak population, Greeks and other small ethnic groups. Thus, Christian Bulgarians fought for freedom, while Muslim Bulgarians took part in the massacre of their uprising. What could have possibly provoked someone to behave in such a way? According to Doinov et al. (2001, p.112), â€Å"the shown cruelty was an outburst of the deep national and religious hatred against the oppressed nationalities in the Ottoman Empire, that has been groomed and encouraged for centuries by the ruling powers†. However, something else was at work there too. Kemal Karpat (1990, p.136) explains that Balkan Muslims, although living in a hostile Christian European world, remained largely apolitical. However, their â€Å"passive cultural-religious consciousness was easily converted to a dynamic Muslim identity when the circumstances required†. Perhaps when Bulgarian Muslims were faced with an unconditional act of resistance in the â€Å"most dramatic form: suicide and self-martyrdom†(2000, p.3), those acted as catalyst and the Pomaks replied with repression and brutality. Ekaterina Peychinova, Director of the Museum of History in Batak describes what drove the oppressors mad: For three days and three nights the people inside the church held together, and the shooting outside did not stop for a minute. At the end of the third day they gave in and opened the gates of the church. But then they had only two options: either become Muslims or die. Every single one of them chose death. (cited in Ivanova, 2008, p.1) The horrific power of those events and the depth of feelings and emotions are overwhelming. Keeping in mind that Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims are from the same ethnic origin and the same blood flows in their veins, have religious and cultural conversion, syncretism and assimilation have changed the latter so much that they could commit such acts and have identity switch over, allowing for full degradation of human values? This essay does not have the ambitious goal to answer all those questions. History gives the answers and it will do the same here too. Many years have gone since those ghastly days and Pomaks’ sense of cultural identity and national belonging has evolved and changed again as Bulgarian Muslims themselves were at the receiving end of numerous assimilation governmental campaigns and strategies from 1878 until now. Cultural identity and national belonging of Bulgarian Pomaks Due to the fact that the Bulgarian speaking Muslims took an active part in the suppressing the April uprising of 1876, they did not enjoy friendly treatment from their Christian neighbours. With the advancement of the Russian armies in 1878, retaliation began and a substantial part of the Pomaks immigrated to the Ottoman empire, refusing to live under the rule of the â€Å"giaurs†or infidels. Many others took part in the Rodopi mutiny and lived in the so-called Pomak republic for about eight years until 1886, when the participating villages were included in the Ottoman Empire but only until the Balkan wars (Todorva, 1998, p.9). Furthermore, in the Ottoman Population: 1830-1914 (1985, p.78), Kemal Karpat cites Ottoman statistics, indicating that the total population of the Empire rose by about 40% in the period 1860-1878 due to coercive measures by Russia and Bulgaria. He mentions that among the Balkan migrants there were large groups of Slavic-speaking Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Montenegrins and Pomaks with a negative sense of ethnic identity, as they considered themselves as Muslims but not Osmanlis (Turks). Thus, judging by the actions of the Pomaks, the question that must be asked here is: did the Pomaks have a Turkish or Bulgarian cultural and national identity at the end of the nineteen and beginning of twentieth century and is it possible to differentiate between religious and ethnic belonging? The Pomaks, who immigrated to the Ottoman Empire, had their cultural identity politicised and defined as Muslim and Turkish under the influence of the local political and ethnic culture (Karpat, 1990, p.137). Unfortunately, the Pomaks, who stayed in Bulgaria, did not have the opportunity to decide for themselves freely because during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, they were subjected to a number of keen campaigns to accept and recognise them as part of the Bulgarian nation or â€Å"narod†, starting from 1920-s and continuing until the mid-80-s. In 1942, the first ever mass attempt to change the names of the Bulgarian Muslims to Bulgarian names took place. It was a result of the work of the Pomaks’ own organisation, called â€Å"Rodina†or Motherland. Consisting mainly of teachers, â€Å"Rodina†strove to improve the position of the Pomaks in Bulgarian society and to save them from the growing resentment and marginalisation. In the context of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom (1878 – 1944) and its nationalistic ambitions and assimilative tendencies, it is important to acknowledge here that Motherlands’ actions were justified in terms of seeking a national, cultural and linguistic unity of the Bulgarian society and the difficulties that the Pomaks could have faced, if tried to fit in that society. What is questionable here is the Pomaks desire to fit in. Although the Pomaks have, at that point, lost the very close contact with their original cultural authority, the Ottoman Empire, they were still in favour of their religious affiliation and were not willing to adapt to the fresh, language-based identity actively promoted by the modern Bulgarian state at that time (Todorova, 1998, p. 11). Another problem here is the attitude of the Christian Bulgarians, whose national consciousness was determined by religious and linguistic boundaries. Were they ready to forget the Ottoman rule and April 1876 and to accept the Pomaks as part of the Bulgarian nation and allow assimilation? Could adaptation and adoption take place and the complex issue of national identity, belonging and unity be resolved peacefully and once and for all? What is better: common national identity and national unity or multi-cultural society? During communist rule in the 1960-s, 1970-s and 1980-s, various Bulgarian governments tried to resolve the issue through numerous heavy-handed assimilation campaigns, when all Muslim names were changed to Bulgarian names, an attempt was made to form a united Bulgarian nation in order to neutralise nationalistic ambitions and claims from neighbouring Turkey. After the democratic reforms from 1989, all ethnic and religious groups in Bulgaria gained the freedom to self-identify themselves and promote their national and religious distinctiveness. All Muslim names were restored and seemingly the great effort to create a united Bulgarian national identity had ended. Hence, the national identity and cultural belonging of the Pomaks are somewhat fluid and non-defined, and the coming generations will have the chance to accomplish the process of integration or affiliation as they choose. It is, however, ultimate to accept the lessons of history and to abolish all attempts to forcefully create a single identity with identical religious or national characteristics. Cultural conversion through co-operation and co-existence is frequently welcome by small or big population groups, whilst conversion by pressure, conflict and aggressive assimilation is rejected and leads to confusion, hatred and frequently violent resistance. Conclusion In conclusion, it must be recognised here that the case of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks is of complex nature and the issue of defining their national identity and cultural belonging is still unresolved. There are many more questions to ask and answer and many more avenues to explore in order to establish which one of the national identity constituents is the most influential and possess the ultimate formative power. Consequently, it is the greatest regret of this work that it is impossible to analyse or develop fully all themes, ideas and debates in connection with the cultural identity, national belonging and self-perception of the Pomaks, when the number of words is restricted and there is lack of the research available. However, one humbly hopes to have offered here, merely an attempt of discussion on the important issues of cultural and religious identity and how they shape the very centre of the human concept of self. Finally, it must be emphasised here that the writing of this essay has been a vast learning experience for the author, an opportunity to study, investigate and explore the world of Bulgarian Muslims and be taught lessons that put historical and contemporary events into perspective. Bibliography Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1982). History of Bulgaria. Sofia: BAN Press, vol. 3-7. Dimitrov, T. (2002). American witness. 3rd Ed. Geneva: Geneva press. Doinov, D., Jechev, N. Kosev, K. (2001). The April uprising and the fate of the Bulgarian nation. Sofia: Academic Press â€Å"Professor Marin Drinov†. Ivanova, M. (2008). St. Nedelya church in Batak. Available from: http://www.pravoslavieto.com. (Accessed: 12 April 2008). Karpat, K. (1985). Ottoman Population: 1830-1914. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Karpat, K. (1990). The hijra from Russia and the Balkans: the process of self-definition in the late Ottoman state. In: Eickelman, D. Piscatori, J. (Ed.). Muslim Travellers: Pilgrimage, migration, and the religious imagination. Los Angeles: University of California Press, Chapter 7, pp. 131-152. Krasin, H. (2007). Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula. (Turskite porazii v Bulgaria i na Balkanskia Poluostrov). Sofia: Svetovit Press. Petrov, P. (1966). History Reader: The Rodopi mountain through the centuries. Sofia: BKP Press. Rajcevski, S. (2004). The Mohammedan Bulgarians (Pomaks). (Balgarite Mohamedani). Sofia: Bulgarian Bestseller Press. The Applied History Research Group. (2000) Old World Contacts. Available from: http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history. (Accessed: 14 April 2008). Todorova, M. (1998). Identity (Trans) Formation among Bulgarian Muslims. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. Voinov, G. (2006). Genocide and Holocaust against Bulgarians. (Genotsidad i Holokostat sreshtu Balgarite.) Sofia: Arateb Press.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
The Flat Tax :: Essays Papers
The Flat Tax TITLE: THE WRONG WAY TO SELL A NEW IDEA Many people would like you to believe that flat tax is so named because it will flatten your finances. That at the least is the intended conclusion. By eliminating personal deductions like mortgagee interest payments, the study claims, the flat tax would reduce housing values in this country by upwards of 10 percent. The study's methodology is shaky at best, and the jury on housing values is still o ut. Despite the forces allied against the flat tax, tax reform has grown steadily because the current tax system is so unpopular and the alternatives promise so much. But in addition to the possibility of lower housing values, the flat tax poses several other serious problems too easily dismissed by its advocates.
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Literacy Essay -- Education Learning Papers
Literacy Why is literacy of such interest to postsecondary teachers of writing? If "literacy," as it might be defined by someone outside the field of English studies, is "the ability to read and write," then why are we interested in it when our own students presumably acquired this ability in the distant past, about the time they learned to tie bows in shoelaces? That we are interested in literacy, I take it, is obvious from the proliferation of books with the word in their titles, of conferences on topics in literacy (the Modern Language Association has now held two), and of review essays such as this one, commissioned by the editors of a journal that purports to deal in issues relevant to "composition theory" and "advanced composition" at the college level. Defining Literacy I might answer my opening question by redefining "literacy" from within English studies in such a way as to make it more complex and problematic, and thus to question the presumption that college students have already acquired it. Indeed, in these proliferating discussions of literacy, its simple definition as the ability to read and write is usually rejected at the outset. But in attempting to go beyond the simple definition, scholars begin to diverge. Consider, for example, the variety of essays collected under the title, The Right to Literacy (1990), a title which implies a unitary conception of literacy and a contest only over who possesses the desired object. In this volume, Andrea A. Lunsford, Helene Moglen, and James Slevin collect twenty-nine papers from the 1988 MLA "Right to Literacy" conference. Most of the essays, therefore, are short; and ranging through them, one gets a sense of the heterogeneous mixture of topics that accrue for Engli... ...Discourse Community." Curriculum Inquiry 12 (1982): 191-207. ---. "Literacy in Culture and Cognition." A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers. Ed. Theresa Enos. New York: Random, 1987. 125-37. Brandt, Deborah. Literacy as Involvement: The Acts of Writers, Readers, and Texts. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1990. Hirsch, E.D., Jr. Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. 2nd ed. New York: Vintage, 1988. Kintgen, Eugene R., Barry M. Kroll, and Mike Rose, eds. Perspectives on Literacy. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1988. Lunsford, Andrea A., Helene Moglen, and James Slevin, eds. The Right to Literacy. New York: MLA, 1990. Stuckey, J. Elspeth. The Violence of Literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton, 1991. Taylor, Denny, and Catherine Dorsey-Gaines. Growing Up Literate: Learning from Inner-City Families. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1988.
Friday, October 11, 2019
English Literature Romantic Period
Breeana Whitehead The Art in Romanticism The works of William Woodsworth and William Blake are some of many great examples of Romantic literature. Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that began in Europe in the early 1800’s. It was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution as illustrated in William Woodsworth’s â€Å"Michael. †This poem mourns the changes made by the Industrial Revolution. In Romantic texts, everything written is out of the ordinary and very fictional. The characters in a romantic piece of literature are created from nothing and the plot is often in imaginary places.All pieces of art and intellect were nothing but fantasy put to paper in one form or another. There is nothing realistic about Romantic literature. This is the Romantic Period. Every piece of art, whether it is music or paintings or drawings or literature, was created to make their readers think about their own emotions within the art. William Blake displays the Roman ticism in his poem â€Å"Garden of Love†by showing discussing an aspect of spirituality. He shows how with religion there is a disconnect of freedom. The poem speaks of a chapel that was built where the speaker, whether Blake or an unknown character, used to play.The speaker notices a sign saying â€Å"Thou Shall Not†on the door of the chapel and so he turned to the garden of love. The speaker soon notices that there are tombstones where flowers should be, and priests were walking around in black binding the character’s joys and desires. This shows the captivity that Blake believed came to a person when that person claimed religion. This shows a free thought that well expresses the idea of Romanticism. This shows the intellectual freedom that the Romantic Period brought forth. William Woodsworth showed Romanticism in his many works, such as his poem, â€Å"Michael. Woodsworth romanticizes or dreams up the characters of Michael and Luke. Michael is a shepherd that lives in the forest side of Grasmere Vale, and Luke was his son. Michael’s family happily lives off in this beautiful countryside when a financial burden falls upon them because of a contract that Michael had signed. Instead of selling his land, Michael sends Luke off to work to pay off this debt. While gone Luke prospers well for himself at first but them falls into a criminal line and has to flee. Michael mourns the loss of his son and soon thereafter Michael and Isabel, Michael’s wife, both die.This poem is a good example of the changes from the Industrial Revolution that spurred the Romantic Movement but it is also a great example of the fictional aspect of Romanticism. Another brilliant example of Romantic literature is the poem, â€Å"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty†by Percy Shelley. In this poem Shelley turns inward to this idea of intellectual beauty. This beauty is an intangible, spiritual idea that is different for everyone. This intellectual beauty becomes the freedom from the doom and gloom that Shelley describes the world to be.The spiritual aspect and emotional pull of this poem makes it a perfect illustration of a Romantic poem. The literature and other arts from the Romantic period were created to create emotion within a person and to make them think about their emotions. This poem does a great job at forcing its reader to look inward to determine his or her own intellectual beauty, whether it be love or hope or self-esteem. A final example of a Romantic poem is Lord Byron’s â€Å"When We Two Parted. †This poem definitely pulls at a readers heartstrings. The poem talks about two people who were lovers but something happened to break them apart.It seems that one of the two in the relationship had had an affair or somehow broke their vows and forced a separation between the two lovers. Byron’s poem brings out the emotions of the audience. The Romantic Age was basically an era of an outpouring of feelin gs. All of the works of this time period were based on an effort to make their audience feel something. The works were of religious and intellectual standards that caused the reader or the observer to stop his or her own life for a second and contemplate a deeper meaning to the work and to life.Artists and authors such as William Blake in his poem â€Å"Garden of Love,†William Woodsworth in his poem â€Å"Michael,†Percy Shelley in his â€Å"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,†and Lord Byron in his emotional poem, â€Å"When We Two Parted,†developed pieces of art that brought this emotional appeal to the table. These pieces of literature represent and explain Romanticism and the Romantic Era perfectly with everything from the fantasy and fictional characters and plots and settings in the pieces such as â€Å"Michael,†to the emotional aspects as shown in â€Å"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty†and in â€Å"When We Two Parted. â€
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Original Writing – A Wild Night
Splash. Splash. The sound of the icy water droplets falling from the polished faucet and hitting stone hard sink echoed throughout the minuscule bathroom. The steady beat of the water had more life than the young girl that was sprawled like a sleeping new born across the floor. There was no one around to state how long she had been lying there nor to care that she not eaten for a period so long that her skin had become more citrine than pale. The girl's breathing was synchronised with the dripping and her mind was in state of oblivion. Her charcoal hair enveloped her face and she had her arm stretched over her eyes, which were exhausted from the numerous amount of crying, because she did not feel ready to face reality yet. Have ever tried clear your mind of all attachments to do yoga and failed? Then you were likely to understand why it did not take long for the adolescent to cloud her mind with thoughts again. Julie's heart began to beat at the speed of a hungry puma as her mind's feelings multiplied. Her muscles were frantically quivering as she thought about the penalty of one's action. The girl's lung had started to heave while she gasped because she finally grasped the importance of time. Although her body was already concerned about the low water levels, she had let some tears escape from her swollen eyes. If you have not noticed already: Julie was having another breakdown. It was hard to believe that less than twenty four hours ago, Julie was not a depressed girl but merely a ‘normal' teenager. â€Å"I do not want you to step a foot outside this house with that boy!†Those typical words of a father left the mouth of elderly man. He stood in the doorway of a coral bedroom, which was decorated with posters of male singers and movie posters, to barricade his daughter from the dangers of pubescent boys. His daughter was caught up in the excitement from receiving boys' attention and he knew that it was his job to protect her. No fathers want to loose their children especially at a young age. His small frame hardly allowed him to properly block the room entrance but he gave a stern look and disallowed any doubts of his decision to enter his mind. However, Julie, who took after her father, was determined to take her step to the wild side. She felt that she had grown up to be too obedient and sensible under the watchful eyes of her parents and the time had come to create equilibrium by thrusting herself into the thrilling side of being a teenager. Julie believed that she worked hard all her life and that she deserved to have a taste of what her fellow peers experienced regularly; she wanted to party all night and watch a genuine brawl between a gang of boys. After all, good grades and respect were not the only merits of life. Julie positively did not want the others to use the phrase ‘an apple does not fall far from its tree' to describe her. â€Å"Whatever you say, father.†Julie's reply came with a sigh and a slight roll of eyes, which was a behaviour her father thought she had gained from school, before leaping onto her floral designed bed. Her father was quite taken back by her sudden gesture of succumbing, but he felt convinced that he was able to sway his daughter from starting a life of rebellion. He wanted to believe that his daughter had grown up to be reasonable and resist the temptations of becoming reckless as she knew the terrible aftermath. The father gave a small nod to express his triumph and he hurriedly backed away from his girl's room to leave her at peace. Unfortunately, he failed to notice that his girl's left middle finger was wrapped around the forefinger behind her back, a sign which made her promise as valid as Zeus' promise to Helena about not having any more affairs. Moments after her father had left, Julie ambled to casement. The metal bars shielding the window were the only features that stopped Julie from feeling that her home was a complete prison. She tilted her head forward against the artic cold window, as she was searching for a familiar figure, only to find her patient friend slouching against his Audi. Julie slithered her left forefinger across the chilly window sill. Then, for a brief minute, as a flash of idea entered Julies mind. The corners of her lips curled up. The adolescent lifted her left gradually. She gripped the metal hook of liberty tightly. Julie pushed down and swung the window wide open. She had thrust her head forward to observe the distance of the ground. Freedom. Julie raised her legs and crouched on the window ledge. She was about to leap when she felt her heart hammer against her ribs. New thoughts of doubt about her actions were accumulating in her mind: was she doing the right thing? Should she have just listened to her father? Julie squeezed her eyes tight as a way of blocking the qualms. As she had believed, it was time for her to rebel against her secure life. The teenager leaned forward, so that she could prepare for the pain, and took her leap. Rory took a break from his constant head bobbing to watch in bewilderment as a petite body fell right in front of him. Julie pulled her self up and paused to let the jab of pain to fade. She gently moved the strands of dark face behind her ear and straightened her clothes before limping forward. The boy gazed into Julie's auburn eyes in an awkward stillness and wondered how serious the girl was to experience what he thought was a good time. He had always thought of Julie as a robot; she was always doing her work and remained so courteous. He had offered her peek at an alternative life (his life) as a joke. She had accepted. Rory was awed by what had just happened and at that moment felt a little fear. â€Å"Are we going to go or what?†Julie had sliced the eerie silence between them. â€Å"Yes†¦ Yes! Where should we go?†â€Å"You're the expert, surprise me.†She was anxious at first; she did not know what to expect or if it was right to trust Rory. However, when they arrived at a club, Julie felt she was part of long lost community. The club may have been exceedingly dim and yet humid, but Julie had put aside the difficulty in breathing and vision because she felt welcomed into a society that she was already a part of. Julie was met with expressions of astonishment as faces from her daily life came up to her, but they were soon replaced with expressions of delight. She experienced disappointment as bitter liquor flowed through her throat with a nutty aftertaste. Beer was definitely overrated but it grew onto her. Her body was searing and her skin was damp with all the sweat that was caused from all the energy Julie used from dancing. She felt her ears and cheeks burn and the pungent smell of gasoline as her companion came closer after every song. The rhythmic music blasted louder every second while the faces of the dancers became hazier. Julie did not care that care that she was becoming exhausted or nauseous because she was more grateful that for once, she had felt like one of her fellow peers. It was past midnight when Julie and Rory stumbled out. Julie started giggling to cover her hesitation from staying out too late. They both knew they had carried away but when Rory felt calm, Julie felt a mixture of adrenaline and fear. She had never stayed out that late and the feeling of guilt injected into her because her father would be worried. Julie tried to shuffle towards Rory's car, but it was camouflaged with the coal-black night. She could also feel her knees becoming weak as her legs trembled. Why did she drink so much when she knew the side effects? Rory grabbed the girl as she started to tilt and dragged her into the automobile. He was prepared for those kinds of situation as he was experienced. â€Å"Want to have a little more fun before our little adventure ends?†Rory gave a devious grin as he suggested to the intoxicated girl. It did not matter that Rory was drunk while he was driving to the two friends, all it mattered that the girl got home. Julie rested her face on her fist as she began to feel light headed. His hint annoyed her at first because it felt like his voice was bashing against her head, but then she took an awareness of what he said; she nodded her head in agreement. The more thrills they felt, the more Julie felt she had achieved. â€Å"Let us end this night in a bang!†Rory flashed his teeth with a smile as he put more pressure on his feet. Julie's hair began to flutter as the wind rushed in from the open windows. They both started to feel their heads throb as the car jump from the speed bumps. The roads and houses had started to zoom by at a faster speed. Julie could feel her stomach's content pushing up as she felt the car vibrate against her body. The two teenagers' eyelids were becoming heavier by the second. Julie gave a small smile as they passed a recognizable row of houses at sixty miles per hour before drifting off. Rory's mind became dazed as he identified a distant small figure, which was waving their arms hysterically, in the middle of the street. He tried to put pressure in his right foot to work the brakes but the car only seemed to be going faster. His arms were moving the steering wheel in all directions as he didn't know what to do. The boy gave up and started to buckle his own belt he felt his body rammed forward. The car crashed into an undersized body that had rolled up the bonnet and collide into the front window. The revolting taste of iron and bitter entered his mouth. The last thing his memory contained was the image of an unconscious face similar to Julie's cover with shards of glass. The bonnet and screen were drenched in fresh crimson blood. A ruined car was the least of Rory's troubles as he heard the piercing sirens amplifying. Her father's death had resulted Julie to conceal herself in the hospital's bathroom. She wanted to avoid the sympathy of the nurses because they boosted the guilt and sorrow that filled her soul. Julie wanted to be alone to prepare herself for the emptiness that was to follow. She clasped her hand tightly and questioned quietly why that was happening to her. For when she wanted to feel achievement and exhilaration, she filled with distress and loneliness. Her father did not deserve to be punished for her own insolence. She was mourning in her own place of escape and dreaded what was to happen when will step out. Julie has grasped the idea that actions come with consequences and was her responsibility her life does not get out of control. Regrettably, she learnt that lesson the hard way,
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