Islamic Mullah

Mullah is the name given  to teachers or scholars of Islamic learning or the leaders of mosques. The term is usually a mark of respect but can also be used in a derogatory manner and is primarily used in Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. In Arabic-speaking lands, an Islamic cleric is called an imam or Shayk  instead. Mullah is derived from the Arabic term mawla, which means master or the one in charge. Throughout Southern Asias history, these rulers of Arabic descent have led cultural revolutions and religious war alike. However, a mullah is general a local Islamic leader, although sometimes they rise to national prominence. Usage in Modern Culture Most often, Mullah refers to Islamic scholars well-versed in the sacred law of the Quran, however, in  Central  and  East Asia, the term mullah is used on a local level to refer to mosque leaders and scholars as a sign of respect.   Iran is a unique case in that it uses the term in a pejorative manner, referring to low-level clerics as mullahs because the term derives from Shiite  Islam wherein the Quran casually mentions mullah multiple times throughout its pages while Shia Islam is the dominant religion of the country. Instead, clergymen and religious leaders use alternative terms to refer to their most respected members of the faith.   In most senses, though, the term has disappeared from modern usage except to mock those who are overly devout in their religious pursuits, a sort of insult for reading the Quran too much and assuming oneself the Mullah referred to in the sacred text. Respected Scholars Still, there is some respect behind the name mullah, at least for those who regard those well versed in religious texts as mullahs. In these cases, the astute scholar must have a firm understanding of all things Islam, especially as it pertains to the contemporary society wherein the hadith (traditions) and fiqh (law) are equally important. Oftentimes, those considered to be mullah will have memorized the Quran and all of its important teachings and lessons, though oftentimes throughout history uneducated common folk would misname visiting clerics mullahs because of their vast knowledge (comparatively) of the religion. Mullahs can also be considered teachers and political leaders. As teachers, mullahs share their knowledge of religious texts in schools called madrasas in matters of Shariah law. They have also served in positions of power, such as the case with Iran after the Islamic State took control in 1979. In Syria, Mullahs play an important role in the ongoing conflict between rival Islamic groups and foreign adversaries alike, valuing the protection of Islamic law while staving off Islamic extremists and attempting to restore democracy or civilized form of government to the war-torn nation.

A Problem Paper on Police Searches and Child Pornography - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1423 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Type Analytical essay Tags: Childhood Essay Police Essay Did you like this example? Short Paper #2 Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s home was searched by the police after a judge issued a valid warrant because he was suspected of stealing new university material. While the police conducted their search they found 200 sexually explicit videos and movies both in VHS/DVD and on his computer. Fifty of these movies contain child pornography. Dr. Green was arrested on the possession of obscene material and child pornography. However he was never charged with possession of stolen items which suggests the items he was suspected of stealing were never found at Dr. Green home. The defense argues that Dr. Green is not guilty of the charges. The pornographic material found by the police is said to have contained child pornography. According to the Child pornography prevention act of 1996 (CCPA) child pornography can be defined as: any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, , video, picture, drawing or computer or computer-generated image or pi cture, which is produced by electronic, mechanical or other means, of sexually explicit conduct, where: (1) its production involved the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, or; (2) such visual depiction is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; (3) such visual depiction has been created, adapted or modified to appear that an `identifiable minorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ is engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or (4) it is advertised, distributed, promoted or presented in such a manner as to convey the impression that it is a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. (Akdeniz, 2001) In Osbone v. Ohio, the Ohio Supreme Court required that the defendant had to know that the images depicted children before being convicted of possession of child pornography. (Osborne v. Ohio, 1990, p. 103) If we closely look at the second point from the CCPA, it states à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“such visual depiction is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conductà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Appears to beà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  being the keyword, there is no evidence to suggest that Dr. Green had knowledge that the characters in the movies were minors. Furthermore, at first glance, by community standards, child pornography might be regarded as obscene material but to truly determine that, we apply the Three-Prong Miller Test. The Miller Test states that: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“(1) Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (2) Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law, (3) Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Miller v. California, 1973, p. 15) The material in question is considered obscene only if all three conditions are satisfied. Dr. Green teac hes classes on human behavior at the university and it very plausible that Dr. Green uses this material for research with no evidence to suggest otherwise. After all, sex is a basic human need and has a great influence on human behavior. The materials found have scientific value and therefore cannot be considered obscene. The defendant requests that the evidence gathered from Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s hard drive be suppressed as it was unlawfully obtained. The police had a legal warrant to search Dr. Green house for stolen material. Search warrants authorize law enforcement to search a specified place for evidence. Searching Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s hard drive constitutes a breach of privacy. The fourth Amendment provides: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The right of the people to be secure in the persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no Warrants shall issue, but on probably cause, supported by the oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Ferrera and Reder et al., 2012, p. 365) There was no probable cause to search Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s computer or hard drive as the stolen item in question is not of digital format, hence searching Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s laptop is considered unconstitutional. In addition, Dr. Green viewed these materials in the privacy of his home which constitutes as his à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Zone of Privacyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  which is protected by the Bill of Rights. Citing Stanley v. Georgia, the court held that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“First and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit making mere private possession of obscene material a crime and that the States retain broad power to regulate obscenity; that power simply does not extend to mere possession by the individual in the privacy of his own home.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Stanley v. Georgia, 1969, p. 557) The defense rests its case. The Police argue that the search and seizure was constitutional because they had a warrant that gave them the right to enter Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s apartment. Although the warrant permitted the police to gain access to Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s apartment and search for the stolen material, the Plain View Doctrine permits law enforcement to seize any contraband in plain view even if those items are not mentioned in the warrant. The plain view doctrine states: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“(1) the officer must already have lawful presence in an area protected by the 4th Amendment. In a house, that would mean that the officer must have entered with a warrant, exigency or consent. (2) The officer must observe an item in plain view. (3) The officer must immediately recognize the item as evidence or contraband without making a further intrusion.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Horton v. California, 1990, p. 128) Using the Plain View Doctrine, the legal search warrant gave the police the right to enter Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s apartment and while the officer was conducting his search, a plain view observation was made when the pornographic material was discovered. The officer recognized the material as obscene and considered it illegal using community standards. Under these conditions the officer had the right to seize the pornographic material and arrest Dr. Green for possession of obscene material. Furthermore, the officer did not invade Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s privacy as he was lawfully present in Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s apartment. In Horton v. Californian he court held that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The prohibition against general searches and warrants is based on privacy concerns, which are not implicated when an officer with a lawful right of access to an item in plain view seizes it without a warrantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . (Horton v. California, 1990, p. 128) Dependence on privacy concerns is inapt because the officers already had a lawful right to be Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s apartment. In conc lusion, based on the facts and arguments made, I believe the defendant has a stronger case. Using the Miller Test the defendant was able to prove that the material was not obscene because it had scientific value. The test proves that the materials found in Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s apartment are not obscene hence on this point alone, the prosecution has no case. Furthermore, In Stanley and Georgia the court held that the Firth and Fourth Amendments prohibits making mere obscene material a crime as long as it remained within the privacy of the defendantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s home. (Stanley v. Georgia, 1969, p. 557) In addition, in Osborne and Ohio, the Supreme Court required that the defendant had to have had knowledge that the images depicted children before being convicted of possession of child pornography. (Osborne v. Ohio, 1990, p. 103) There is no evidence to suggest that Dr. Green knew that the characters depicted in the films were children. Besides, there manner in which the evidence was obtained can be questioned. Search warrants authorize law enforcement and limit the search to a specified place for evidence. The police argued that the evidence was legally gathered using the Plain View Doctrine. The third part of the Plain View Doctrine states à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The officer must immediately recognize the item as evidence or contraband without making a further intrusionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Without further inspection or intrusion, it is difficult to plainly look at DVDs/VHS and conclude that the material is contraband. The conspicuousness of these materials is not prominent as guns, drugs or any other obvious contraband. DVDs/VHS at first glance cannot be identified as contraband without further observation. I believe Dr. Greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Fourth Amendment rights were violated. To sum it up, Dr. Green was not in possession of obscene material nor did he commit a crime and the nature of how the evidence was gotten can be questioned. At this juncture, I b elieve Dr. Green should be acquitted. Reference Akdeniz, Y. 2001. Regulation of Child Pornography on the Internet. [online] Available at: https://www.cyber-rights.org/reports/uscases.htm [Accessed: 26 Mar 2014]. Arizona v. Hicks. 480 321. 1987. Ferrera, Gerald, Margo Reder, Stephen Lichtenstein, Robert Bird, Jonathan Darrow, Jeffrey Aresty and Jacqueline Klosek. CyberLaw Text Cases. CyberLaw Text Cases. South-Western, 2012. Horton v. California. 496 128. 1990 Miller v. California. 413 15. 1973 Osborne v. Ohio. 495 103. 1990. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Stanley v. Georgia. 394 557. 1969. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "A Problem Paper on Police Searches and Child Pornography" essay for you Create order

Risk Management Failures of British Petroleum Free Essays

string(117) " in two other major oil-producing nations, Brazil and Norway, as a last resort protection against underwater spills\." BP is a British global energy company which is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world. As a multinational oil company, BP is the UK’s largest corporation, with its headquarters in St James’s, City of Westminster, London. BP America’s headquarters is in the One Westlake Park in the Energy Corridor area of Houston, Texas; the company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six leaders. We will write a custom essay sample on Risk Management Failures of British Petroleum or any similar topic only for you Order Now In order to project social responsibility and improve its image British Petroleum changed its name into BP in year 2000 with a logo of green and yellow sunflower patterns. Paradoxically the same company symbol is now under derision and the object of controversial attacks from environmentalists and damaging court cases. The company’s predicament further worsened when it was listed as one of the â€Å"ten worst corporations† during the year 2001 and 2006. In fact, BP and its competitors Royal Dutch-Shell were considered by activists to be responsible with the threatening phenomenon of climate change. BP was warned before the oil pipeline leak happened in Alaska, but no action was made by the higher officials to mitigate its possible occurrence and reduce damages. In March 2005, BP’s Texas City, Texas refinery, one of its largest refineries, exploded causing 15 deaths, injuring 180 people and forcing thousands of nearby residents to remain sheltered in their homes. A large column filled with hydrocarbon overflowed to form a vapor cloud, which ignited. The explosion caused all the casualties and substantial damage to the rest of the plant. The incident came as the culmination of a series of less serious accidents at the refinery, and the engineering problems were not addressed by the management. Maintenance and safety at the plant had been cut as a cost-saving measure, the responsibility ultimately resting with executives in London. The fall-out from the accident continues to cloud BP’s corporate image because of the mismanagement at the plant. There have been several investigations of the disaster, the most recent being that from the U. S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board which offered a derisive evaluation of the company. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation and said management failures could be traced from Texas to London. The company pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act, was fined $50 million, and sentenced to three years probation. On October 30, 2009, OSHA fined BP an additional $87 million— the largest fine in OSHA history— for failing to correct safety hazards revealed in the 2005 explosion. Inspectors found 270 safety violations that had been previously cited but not fixed and 439 new violations. BP is appealing that fine. In August 2006, BP shut down oil operations in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, due to corrosion in pipelines leading up to the Alaska Pipeline. The wells were leaking insulating agent called Arctic pack, consisting of crude oil and diesel fuel, between the wells and ice. BP had spilled over one million liters of oil in Alaska’s North Slope. This corrosion is caused by sediment collecting in the bottom of the pipe, protecting corrosive bacteria from chemicals sent through the pipeline to fight this bacteria. There are estimates that about 5000 barrels (790 m3) of oil were released from the pipeline. To date 1513 barrels (240. 5 m3) of liquids, about 5200 cubic yards (4000 m3) of soiled snow and 328 cubic yards (251 m3) of soiled gravel have been recovered. After approval from the DOT, only the eastern portion of the field was shut down, resulting in a reduction of 200000 barrels per day (32000 m3/d) until work began to bring the eastern field to full production on 2 October 2006. In May 2007, the company announced another partial field shutdown owing to leaks of water at a separation plant. Their action was interpreted as another example of fallout from a decision to cut maintenance of the pipeline and associated facilities. On 16 October 2007 Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation officials reported a toxic spill of methanol (methyl alcohol) at the Prudhoe Bay oil field managed by BP PLC. Nearly 2,000 gallons of mostly methanol, mixed with some crude oil and water, spilled onto a frozen tundra pond as well as a gravel pad from a pipeline. Methanol, which is poisonous to plants and animals, is used to clear ice from the insides of the Arctic-based pipelines. From January 2006 to January 2008, three workers were killed at the company’s Texas City, Texas refinery in three separate accidents. In July 2006 a worker was crushed between a pipe stack and mechanical lift, in June 2007, a worker was electrocuted, and in January 2008, a worker was killed by a 500-pound piece of metal that came loose under high pressure and hit him. On April 1 2009, a Bond Offshore Helicopters Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma ferrying workers from BP’s platform in the Miller oilfield in the North Sea off Scotland crashed in good weather killing all 16 on board. On April 20, 2010, a semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded after a blowout and sank two days later, killing eleven people and causing a massive oil spill threatening the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. The rig is owned and operated by Transocean Ltd on behalf of BP, which is the majority owner of the oil field. The company originally estimated the size of the leak at about 1,000 barrels a day but later accepted government estimates of a leak of at least 5000 barrels per day. On April 30, BP stated that it would harness all of its resources to battle the oil spill, spending $7 million a day with its partners to try to contain the disaster. BP was running the well without a remote control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations, Brazil and Norway, as a last resort protection against underwater spills. You read "Risk Management Failures of British Petroleum" in category "Essay examples" The use of such devices is not mandated by U. S. regulators. The U. S. Government gave the responsibility of the incident to BP and will hold it accountable for costs incurred in containing the situation. On May 11, 2010, Congress called the executives of BP, Transocean, and Halliburton to a hearing regarding the oil spill. When probed for answers regarding the events leading up to the explosion, each company blamed the other. BP blamed Transocean who owned the rig, who then blamed the operators of the rig, BP. They also blamed Halliburton, who built the well casing. Coming to analyze BP’s risk management, it is noted first that BP organization employs the systems of centralized direction and decentralized implementation. The centralized direction system was designed to attain business goals and objectives. The company unifies the corporation by implementing strategic objectives, values, behaviors and standards to be performed and easily understood by their people. On the other hand the systematic objective of BP is decentralized implementation of its operations in order to deliver the best quality of products or services and satisfy the needs of the consumers. The decentralized implementation covered three business segments namely: Exploration and Production, The Gas, Power and Renewable and Refining and Market. As is well known, procedures and controls are a necessary condition for effective risk management, but not a sufficient one. A company’s standards and processes will fail if employees do not feel empowered to follow the standards during times of stress or they fear retaliation for reporting â€Å"unwanted† information. Reading the report of BP and other esources at my disposal I have found that how parts of BP’s culture may have tolerated shortened safety procedures as they fell behind investment schedules and other deadlines. For example, the company cut short a procedure involving drilling fluid that is designed to detect gas in the well and skipped a quality test of the cement around the pipe (another buffer against gas) despite BP’s report finding that there were signs of problems with the cement job and despite a warning from the cement contractor company. The experts also concluded that there was not a strong culture of communication across its own team leaders and partner companies. Having multiple players can restrict access to critical knowledge and slow decision-making processes to a dangerous point. Nor did there appear to be a culture where managers were expected to seek out or share contrary information from a different perspective. These cultural elements allowed issues to continue without the application of comprehensive expertise. It seems to be necessary adding more controls, more checks and balances, with auditable risk management processes new minimum standards, and increased self-audits. While some criteria and thresholds did not exist prior to the accident, it is unclear whether the lack of these controls and audit mechanisms directly caused the accident itself Companies are not able to entirely shift operational or reputational risk to a partner, subcontractor, or supplier. Presumably, BP had in place significant and comprehensive controls and contractual requirements for its contractors and other service providers. However, questions remain about whether these contractual requirements were actually implemented, assessed, and monitored by BP. Anyway, risk management referred to in this paper are the activities related to managing an organization that integrates recognition of risk, risk assessment, developing strategies to manage it, and mitigation of risk using managerial resources. Its primary objective is to reduce the different risks related to threats caused by environment, technology, humans, organizations and politics. Firms usually formulate strategies in order to manage or mitigate risk by transferring the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk. BP must apply risk management in its corporate financing as the technique for measuring, monitoring and controlling the financial or operational risk on the firm. The commonly used framework breaks risks into market risk (price risk), credit risk and operational risk and also specifies methods for calculating capital requirements for each of these components. In enterprise risk management, a risk is defined as a possible event or circumstance that can have negative influences on the survival of a company. Its impact can be on the very existence, the resources (human and capital), the products and services, or the customers of the enterprise, as well as external impacts on society, markets, or the environment. In a financial institution, enterprise risk management is normally thought of as the combination of credit risk, interest rate risk or asset liability management, market risk, and operational risk. All risks can never be fully avoided or mitigated simply because of financial and practical limitations. Therefore all organizations have to accept some level of residual risks. In the case of BP, the following must also be undertaken in addition and consideration of those discussed above. Firstly, it is of major importance to planning how risk management will be conducted must be undertaken: in this regard the plan must include risk management tasks, responsibilities, activities and budget. Secondly, managers responsible for BP will assign a risk officer who will be responsible for foreseeing potential problems. In this respect, it is important also to maintain the risk database and each risk should have an opening date, a title, a brief description, a probability and a suggestion of importance. Once potential sources of risk have been identified, it will also need preparing a plan for reducing the risk (mitigation plan) for risks that are chosen to be mitigated. In this regard, it is well known that the purpose of the mitigation plan is to describe how this particular risk will be handled what, when, by who and how will it be done to avoid it or minimize consequences if it becomes a liability. BP, in a perspective of reducing the risks described above in the long run as well as in order to optimize and reduce the resources used for that purpose, must eventually summarizing planned and faced risks, effectiveness of mitigation activities, and effort spent for the risk management. How to cite Risk Management Failures of British Petroleum, Essay examples

Famous Chinese Horse Painting Essay Example For Students

Famous Chinese Horse Painting Essay In the sass while playing in a hidden cave in Lascar, Prance, many children found a remarkable painting on the wall. After telling about their findings, researches and explorers visited the cave and it Vass then they saw the Chinese Horse. The art got its name because it resembled the ceramic horses of the Han Dynasty in China. Although the reasoning for the painting is unknown, they research has shown that several paintings in this era included plants and animals. It was not the only painting Off horse found on a cave wall. However, it is thought that the artist wanted to protect his work and for it to survive, that IS Why he or she chose a place far into the cave. Most of the painting was applied directly to the wall by a flickering fire light and paint containing Earth elements and animal fat. Other parts of the painting were blown through reeds causing a special affect. It was placed on a sandstone wall. Most cave walls were not smooth; they had a lot of rough textures and cracks. The painting itself consisted of warm earth like, fall colors. These colors included: browns, tans, reds, greens. The horse in the painting has a large sagging stomach. Researches believe the horse was meant to look pregnant. The head of the horse was very small. Personally, think the head was small and the stomach was 50 large because the artist wanted to emphasis the unborn colt in the mother. He or she was not worried so much about the adult horse but more the child. Maybe, like many mothers and females who want to be mothers think, the artist was hoping for a child. Owe when was pregnant I would see small children and infants and think about the child inside of me. So, maybe the artist was kind of doing the same thing. Maybe the artist was a female who wanted a child Also, there are red arrow-like paintings around the horse. Researchers think they could be plants or arrows. I think the look like wheat. Believe the horse is running in a field as if it is free. It reminds me of our history when the Indians roamed free and malls and grocery sto res did not exist. The artist may be ring to express this feeling.