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IMO News Service
New Delhi: South Asian Minorities Lawyers Association (SAMLA), an association of lawyers committed to promotion of rights of minorities in South Asia, has announced it will give SAMLA Harmony Awards 2012 eminent journalist Kuldip Nayar and eminent parliamentarian and diplomat Syed Shahabuddin at a function to be organised on May 8, 2013 at 4.00. pm at Indian Law Institute, opp. Supreme court, New Delhi.
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| Syed Shahabuddin |
A discussion on "Democracy, Elections and Minorities" would also be held on the occasion. "The discussion would be aimed at deliberating extensively on state of democracy, electoral system, electoral process and their impact on rights of minorities in the South Asian region in general and India in particular," said Salar M. Khan, Programme Coordinator, in a press release.
Feroz Khan Ghazi, SAMLA General Secretary, said, "SAMLA believes that protection of minorities' rights is necessary to attain peace and prosperity in the region. In order to advance awareness about the need to realize rights of minorities in the South Asian region in general and India in particular, South Asian Minorities Lawyers Association (SAMLA) instituted SAMLA Harmony Awards in 2011. The awards are to be conferred annually on two personalities or institutions, one from minorities and another from majority community, who have made significant contribution for protection and promotion of rights of minorities."
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| Kuldip Nayar |
"Fundamental principle of substantive democracy is the protection of the rights of minority. A substantive democracy ensures fair participation of all segments of society, including minorities. Further, in a substantive democracy, the state and society understand the need and right of minorities to maintain their unique identity – national, religious, ethnic, or other, their heritage, and their culture, and protect this right. Practical functioning of a democracy has a direct relation with the method of elections. It is the model of elections and the process of elections that determine the level of minorities’ participation in the governance," stated Mr. Ghazi.
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ByJessica Griggs
Hamzah Mohd Salleh's lab is trying to ensure the world's 1.6 billion Muslims can stick to their religion's strict halal rules.
Can you explain the concept of halal?
In Islamic law, there are things that are allowed, known as halal, and things that are forbidden. In terms of Islamic dietary laws, things that are forbidden include pork, products derived from pork, and alcohol. But many products are in a grey area. Muslims are advised to only consume things which are clearly halal.
What type of research do you do?
My colleagues and I aim to find ways to detect non-halal materials in products that are to be certified halal. Our chemists check for porcine DNA or an unacceptable level of alcohol, for example. We also try to find alternatives to forbidden ingredients, such as gelatin made from fish skin instead of from pigs. Our research assists the halal industry – estimated to be worth trillions of US dollars per year globally – and the religious organisations that certify products as halal.
Does halal go beyond food?
Yes, it extends to cosmetics, personal care products and pharmaceuticals, to name but a few. Most capsules for medicines contain gelatin, for example. More and more pharmaceutical companies, at least those in the Muslim world, are trying to source gelatin from halal sources. And Muslims want to know whether the lipstick they wear or the lotion they put on their skin is acceptable. We are also looking at the food animals eat, so whether it is OK to use a pig's body parts as animal feed, and whether pig hair is permissible for use in, for example, a pastry brush.
Are there other areas of active research?
We are working on making sure the processes used to make drugs are halal. To make vaccines and other proteins, you need to culture cells in a bioreactor. To increase the density of the cells you can use microcarriers – insoluble particles that the cells congregate around – usually made of porcine gelatin. I'm developing a microcarrier that works in the same way but is made of halal materials. The next step will be ensuring that nutrients given to the cells to make them grow are also permissible.
Halal slaughter involves cutting the animal's throat with a sharp knife, before draining the blood. Does your work inform this area?
The Malaysian halal regulatory body doesn't encourage stunning before slaughter, but since the country imports meat from countries such as Australia and New Zealand, where stunning is required, guidelines have been drawn up. These detail the current to be used and how long it should be applied, based on an animal's weight. We want to detect if guidelines are violated. So we are trying to find biomarkers – increased levels of hormones or enzymes – that are produced if an animal is overstunned, to make sure that the electricity is only used to stun rather than kill.
Do you think the growth of halal science is because halal certification is big business?
That's one reason. There are great opportunities for companies to address the needs of Muslims around the world. If you fulfil the requirements and accommodate those needs, that is OK, even if the driving force behind this is profit.
(Courtesy: NewScientist.com)
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By Palash Ghosh
In a move that may annoy some in the Muslim world, Pope Francis plans to canonize 800 Italian laymen who were massacred by Ottoman Turkish soldiers during the historic siege in the southern Italian city of Otranto in 1480.
The canonization service, the very first by the new pope, will be held on May 12 in St Peter’s Square, reported Britain’s Catholic Herald newspaper.
The Daily Telegraph reported that this ceremony will set a new record for the highest number of saints canonized at any one time by the Church.
During the week-long siege of Otranto more than five centuries ago, Ottoman soldiers were instructed to murder all men above the age of 15 for refusing their demands to convert to Islam. According to historical accounts, one of the martyrs, Antonio Primaldo, a tailor, declared: “We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, and for Jesus Christ we are ready to die.”
Primaldo was soon beheaded for his troubles. The names of the other martyrs are lost to history.
The Cathedral in Otranto is today adorned with the skulls and other relics of the martyrs.Pope John Paul II visited Otranto in 1980 to observe the 500th anniversary of the massacre. At that time the Pope praised the city’s medieval residents who resisted the Turks’ threats.
However, the martyrdom of Primaldo and his fellow natives of Otranto were not recognized until 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI who said they were “killed out of hatred for the faith.”
Benedict also identified a miracle related to the Otranto saga: a nun whose cancer was miraculously healed after she paid a pilgrimage to the martyr’s relics in Otranto in 1980.
The siege of Otranto, launched by Sultan Mohammed II of Turkey, was eventually stopped by the forces of the King of Naples. Mohammed’s forces, who had already captured Constantinople (present day Istanbul), failed to reach their next intended target, Rome.
Now, in the early 21st century, highlighting the Otranto massacre must be viewed within the context of still fragile ties between the West and Islam.
A conservative Italian senator named Alfredo Mantovano, who wrote about the Otranto siege in 2007, compared it with the present state of relations between Europe and Islam.
“All of this [the Otranto massacre] took place because of the indifference of the political leaders of Europe to the Ottoman menace,” he wrote, the Telegraph cited.
“In Otranto, no one displayed rainbow pacifist flags, nor invoked international resolutions … Today Europe is under attack, not by an institutionally organized Muslim phalanx but by a patchwork of non-governmental organizations of fundamentalist Muslims.”
Damian Thompson, a columnist for the Telegraph in Britain, pointed out that Pope Francis has had warm relations with Muslims and has sought to reach out to global Islamic communities. He wonders how the mass canonization of Christians who died at the hands of Muslims from more than 500 years ago will affect his campaign to heal the rift between the faiths.
Indeed, upon his election as Holy Father, Francis was widely embraced and congratulated by Muslims on hopes of deeper dialogue between Christendom and Islam.
As a cardinal from Argentina, Francis had even condemned some negative remarks that his predecessor, Benedict, had made about Islam.
In March, during an audience before the Diplomatic Corps in Rome -- which included some Muslim leaders -- Francis said: “In this work, the role of religion is fundamental. It is not possible to build bridges between people while forgetting God.
“But the converse is also true: It is not possible to establish true links with God, while ignoring other people. Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam.”
(Courtesy: International Business Times)
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By Schams Elwazer
Saudi Arabian girls will be officially allowed to practice sports in private schools for the first time, according to an education ministry announcement reported in the nation's official press agency.
The new regulations for physical education, announced Saturday, require that girls "dress modestly" and have appropriate equipment and facilities, and that female Saudi teachers have priority to supervise these activities.
"(This decision) stems from the teachings of our religion, which allows women to practice such activities in accordance with sharia," Education Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Dakhini told SPA.
This is the first official government sanction of women's sports in schools, but some Saudis say it is not as momentous a decision as it may seem.
"This is not a big deal," said blogger Eman al-Nafjan, who writes about Saudi women's issues. "Private schools already have a physical education program, and the government knows about them. My daughter and niece both go to separate well-known private schools, and they both have sports programs."
Al-Nafjan says that although the announcement will not change anything for private school students, the decision itself could be a barometer for the introduction of sports into public girls' schools that do not have physical education programs.
"My speculation is that this might be a feeler to see if there's any backlash from society," al-Nafjan said. "Over the last few years, there have been several attempts to incorporate physical education into public schools, but they met with a lot of resistance. I think they're trying to gauge if society is more receptive or if there is still resistance."
Saudi Arabia has been taking steps to reform its view on women and sports. The ultraconservative kingdom fielded its first female athletes at the London Olympics last summer, and discussions under way could lead to women's private sports clubs being allowed to formally register with the Ministry of Sport.
The decision to send women to the Games was a rare concession in a kingdom where they are banned from driving. They cannot vote or hold public office, though that will change in 2015.Women in Saudi Arabia also cannot marry, leave the country, go to school or open bank accounts without permission from a male guardian, usually the father or husband. Much of public life is segregated by gender.
(Courtesy: CNN)
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As many as four in ten Muslims living in Afghanistan and Palestine, support the use of suicide bombing, an extensive new international survey has found.
The high support for the desperate tactic in those war-torn regions was nearly matched in Egypt and Bangladesh, where 29 per cent and 26 per cent of respondents agreed with its use respectively.
However, the worldwide poll of Muslims by the Washington-based Pew Forum, found that in most countries, three-quarters or more, rejected suicide bombing and other forms of violence.In most of the countries surveyed, Muslims were more worried about Islamist militancy, than any other form of religious violence.
The report, which was based on surveys in 39 countries with large Muslim populations, also found that large majorities want the Islamic Shariah code integrated with the official law of their countries.
“However, there was widespread disagreement as to what Sharia includes, and who should be subject to it,” said the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Over three-quarters of Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, want Sharia courts to decide family law issues such as divorce and property disputes.
Views on punishments such as chopping off thieves’ hands, or decreeing death for apostates is more evenly divided in much of the Islamic world, although more than three-quarters of Muslims in South Asia said they are justified.
Those punishments have helped make Sharia controversial in some non-Islamic countries, where some fear radical Muslims want to impose it on Western societies.
The survey, however, shows that Muslim societies are far from monolithic in their views.“Muslims are not equally comfortable with all aspects of Sharia, and most of them do not believe it should be applied to non-Muslims,” the study said.
Unlike codified Western law, Sharia is a loosely defined set of moral and legal guidelines based on the Koran, the sayings of Prophet Mohammad (hadith) and Muslim traditions. Its rules and advice, cover everything from prayers to personal hygiene.
Princeton University political scientist, Amaney Jamal, who was the special adviser for the project, said Muslims in poor and repressive societies, tended to identify Sharia with basic Islamic values, such as equality and social justice.
“In those societies, you tend to see significant support for Sharia,” she said. By contrast, Muslims who have lived under narrow, if not rigid Islamic systems, were less supportive of Sharia as the official law.
More than four-fifths of the 38,000 Muslims interviewed in 39 countries, said non-Muslims in their countries could practice their faith freely and that this, was good.
This view was strongest in South Asia, where 97 per cent of Bangladeshis and 96 per cent of Pakistanis agreed, while the lowest Middle Eastern result was 77 per cent in Egypt.
The survey polled only Muslims and not minorities. In several Muslim countries, Christian minorities say they cannot practice their faith freely and are subject to discrimination and physical attacks.
The survey produced mixed results on questions relating to the relationship between politics and Islam. Democracy wins slight majorities in key Middle Eastern states; 54 per cent in Iraq, 55 per cent in Egypt, but falls to 29 per cent in Pakistan.
By contrast, it stands at 81 per cent in Lebanon, 75 per cent in Tunisia and 70 per cent in Bangladesh.
Views on whether women should decide themselves if they should wear a headscarf vary greatly, from 89 per cent in Tunisia and 79 per cent in Indonesia saying yes and 45 per cent in Iraq and 30 per cent in Afghanistan saying no.
Conflict with other religions loomed larger, with 68 per cent in Lebanon saying it was a big problem, 65 per cent in Tunisia, 60 per cent in Nigeria and 57 per cent in Pakistan.A section of the survey on U.S. Muslims, noted they “sometimes more closely resemble other Americans than they do Muslims around the world.”
Only about half say their closest friends are Muslim, compared to 95 per cent of Muslims globally.
(Courtesy: Nigerian Tribune)
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By Bryan Hyde
Since the suspected bombers of the Boston Marathon were revealed to have been Muslims, a new wave of antiMuslim fear has been unleashed.
Once again my inbox is filling with email containing dire warnings of the danger that Islam poses to our freedoms. Taken as a whole, most commentaries amount to simple anti-Muslim screeds.
Most of them rely on shock words to promote broad-brush demonizing of all Muslims. All of them use deliberate distortion of many Muslim religious beliefs. An especially memorable commentary included was from a Dutch Member of Parliament, it ended with a call to “stop this Islamic stupidity from destroying the free world that we know.”
Before digging the mote out of Islam’s eye we should remove a few beams from our own eyeHow to “stop” Islam is left to the reader’s imagination, but before digging the mote out of Islam’s eye we should remove a few beams from our own eye.
If Muslims wish to destroy the remaining freedoms of average Americans, they’ll have to get in line behind our own government.
After all, it wasn’t Islam that gave us a shadowy Federal Reserve banking system. Over the past 100 years this system has systematically inflated and debased our currency to where the dollar has lost more than 95% of its initial value.
Islam doesn’t seek to cripple our economy by substituting government bureaucratic intervention for the power of the free market.
Muslims didn’t create our incomprehensible income tax system that holds each American personally accountable to the Federal Government. They don’t operate the Internal Revenue Service that can take any of us from warm, well fed, and happy to cold, hungry and impoverished in a matter of hours.
Muslims aren’t the ones who are spying on our phone calls, e-mails and financial records looking for anything potentially incriminating. They don’t try to keep track of our every movement through inescapable surveillance.
They’re not the ones who created a compulsory school system aimed at creating obedient citizens and workers rather than freethinking individuals and entrepreneurs.
Muslims aren’t the ones requiring all airline passengers to submit to electronic strip searches or being fondled as a condition of traveling. They are not the ones drowning our society in a flood of sewage that enters our homes through television and computer screens.
It’s not the Muslims that are seeking to punish law abiding gun owners for acts that they have not committed. They weren’t the ones going door to door sticking guns in the face of innocent citizens last month in Boston.
Distasteful as Sharia law may appear to us, it doesn’t really sound all that far removed from our own ever-increasing laws, statutes, and regulations.
We can be punished financially or criminally for things like not having green enough grass in our yards, for building a fence on our own property without the proper permit, or for carrying a large amount of cash. These draconian laws appear to serve the needs of those in power and not the interests of the citizenry.
While we wring our hands over the Muslims, our own leaders are destroying our freedoms right under our noses and with our approval.
It always seems easier to blame others for our problems. Like any religion, Muslims have their troublemakers whose indefensible actions tarnish the reputations of more than a billion Muslims who’ve never harmed anyone.
Our own ignorance makes them an inviting target. But they are far from the greatest threat to the American way of life.
[Bryan Hydeis a news commentator and co-host of the Perspectives talk show on Fox News 1450 AM 93.1 FM.]
(Courtesy: StGeorgeUtah.com)
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Lahore: In majority Muslim Pakistan, religious minorities say democracy is killing them.Intolerance has been on the rise for the past five years under Pakistan's democratically elected government because of the growing violence of Islamic radicals, who are then courted by political parties, say many in the country's communities of Shiite Muslims, Christians, Hindus and other minorities.
On Saturday, the country will elect a new parliament, marking the first time one elected government is replaced by another in the history of Pakistan, which over its 66-year existence has repeatedly seen military rule. But minorities are not celebrating. Some of the fiercest Islamic extremists are candidates in the vote, and minorities say even the mainstream political parties pander to radicals to get votes, often campaigning side-by-side with well-known militants.
More than a dozen representatives of Pakistan's minorities interviewed by The Associated Press expressed fears the vote will only hand more influence to extremists. Since the 2008 elections, under the outgoing government led by the left-leaning Pakistan People's Party, sectarian attacks have been relentless and minorities have found themselves increasingly targeted by radical Islamic militants. Minorities have little faith the new election will change that.
"We are always opposed to martial law (but) during all the military regimes, the law and order was better and there was good security for minorities," said Amar Lal, a lawyer and human rights activist for Pakistan's Hindu community.
About 96 percent of Pakistan's population of 180 million is Muslim. Most are Sunni, but according to the CIA Factbook about 10 to 15 percent are members of the Shiite sect. The remaining 4 percent are adherents to other religions such as Christians, Hindus and Ahmedis - a sect reviled by mainstream Muslims as heretics because they believe a prophet came after Muhammad, defying a basic tenet of Islam that Muhammad was the last prophet. Sunni radicals view Shiite Muslims as apostates.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom in a report last month berated the Pakistani government for its poor record of protecting both its minorities and its majority Sunni Muslims and recommended that Pakistan be put on a list of worst offenders, which could jeopardize billions of dollars in US assistance.
"The government of Pakistan continues to engage in and tolerate systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief," the report said. "Sectarian and religiously motivated violence is chronic, especially against Shiite Muslims, and the government has failed to protect members of religious minority communities, as well as the majority faith."
Lal said that in the past three years, 11,000 Hindus living in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province have migrated to India because they were worried about security and frustrated by kidnappings and forced conversions of young Hindu girls to Islam. Pakistan's Hindu minority complains that scores of Hindu girls have been kidnapped, forced to marry their abductor and convert to Islam.
"In Pakistan's southern Sindh province, from every Hindu house, one member of the family has left either for Karachi or for a foreign land," said Lal, who was once a special adviser to Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People's Party until her assassination in December 2007. "We have lost our hope from the democratic forces because they do everything for money" and nothing for minorities, he said.
Pakistan's Christian communities have complaints as well.
In March, a mob of young Muslims stormed and set fire to nearly 150 homes and shops in the Joseph Christian Colony, a Christian enclave on the outskirts of Lahore, the capital of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, where 60 percent of Pakistanis live and where militant Islamic groups have their headquarters. The mob gathered after one resident was accused of blasphemy, but local people say it was a tiff over money. Most residents fled for their lives, returning the next morning and eventually rebuilding their homes.
On April 30, some radicals attacked 25-year-old resident Babar Ilyas. His injured arm and leg wrapped in bandages, Ilyas told the AP that he was beaten by radicals who warned Christians to leave the area and drop charges against at least two people arrested in connection with the earlier attack.
"We do not have any hope in elections," said Salim Gabriel, a self-declared social worker for Christians and colony resident. "Dictatorship is better for minorities."
Gabriel accused political parties of aligning with radical Islamic groups to get votes, campaigning with well-known militants which he says emboldens radicals among Pakistan's Sunni majority to carry out attacks against minorities with impunity. Minority religious groups fear extremists will piggyback on the backs of mainstream political parties to a position of political power. They most often point to Nawaz Sharif, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League.
In an interview with the AP, Sharif's spokesman Siddiq-ul-Farooqi flatly rejected any links to extremist groups.
"We are a moderate party and have no relationship with extremists," Farooqi said.Members of the party, however, have been seen on the campaign trail with members of extremist parties like the Ahle Sunat Wal Jamaat, a new name for the outlawed Sunni militant group Sipah-e-Sahabah Pakistan, or SSP. Minority leaders and election monitoring groups say Sharif's party is withdrawing candidates in certain electoral constituencies to give radical religious candidates an unchallenged run for election.
Farooqi denied any accommodation with extremist groups.
But Pakistani politics is rarely straightforward. Sharif's party has fielded several Shiite candidates, even as it rubbed shoulders with militant Islamists who publicly call Shiites apostates deserving of death.
Most of the deadly attacks targeting Shiites in Pakistan have been carried out by a group affiliated with the SSP. Yet the renamed SSP is fighting elections as part of a coalition of six radical religious parties. Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi, the leader of the SSP and a candidate, said the coalition has 300 candidates running for election. His party placards often hurl abuses at Shiites, calling them kafirs, or non-believers.
The non-believer epitaph is also widely used in reference to Ahmedis, who consider themselves Muslims but have been explicitly declared non-Muslims in Pakistan's constitution. As well as violent attacks on its members, Ahmedi leaders told the AP they have been singled out with a separate electoral roll that identifies them as Ahmedis. The separate list also gives their addresses, making them easy targets. Security was tightened after a brutal attack in 2010 when militants simultaneously hit two Ahmedi mosques in Lahore killing more than 100 people and wounding scores more.
Ahmedis rarely vote in elections because to do so they have to declare they are non-Muslims, says Shahid Ataullah, a spokesman for the Ahmedi community in Lahore.
So virulent is the abhorrence of Ahmedis by Pakistan's religious right-wing parties that many candidates in Saturday's elections have found it necessary to openly declare their view that Ahmedis are non-Muslims.
The country's controversial blasphemy laws are often used to jail Ahmedis for crimes as simple as saying Assalam-o-Allaikum, a traditional greeting among Muslims and often used by non-Muslims living in predominately Muslim countries. It means "May the peace of God be upon you."
(Courtesy: The Times of India)
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OIC chief attends the event opened by Prime Minister
Dhaka: Bangladesh is hosting the 19th International Conference of Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS) to share scientific and technological innovations with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the four-day conference at the Sonargaon Hotel on Monday. Outgoing Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, IAS President and former Prime Minister of Jordan Dr Abdel Salam Majali, Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni and University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman Prof Dr AK Azad Chowdhury also spoke on the occasion, reports UNB.
Thirty-three renowned experts from 23 countries are participating in the two-day conference, said officials at the Foreign Ministry. There will be a Dhaka declaration after the conference ends on Tuesday.
The prime minister told the inauguration ceremony that the use of science and technology could help the Muslim countries achieve the goal of growth and prosperity, and emphasised cooperation among the Muslim countries in this area.
“The use of science and technology can help realise the goal of growth and prosperity. Cooperation of Muslim countries in this area will be extremely useful,” she said.
The theme of the 19th International Conference of the IAS is ‘Achieving Socio-economic Development in the Islamic World through Science, Technology and Innovation’.
“Backwardness of Muslim countries in the areas of science and technology is one of the factors that aggravate our difficulties,” Hasina said, stressing the need for scientific and technological innovations to address challenges like food, water and energy insecurity.
“Experience-sharing among the Muslim countries as well as undertaking projects towards capacity building in ICT may be a useful stepping stone in the right direction,” she said.In response to the need for an international organisation that can play such a role, the Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS) came into being in Amman (Jordan) in 1986 as the academy of sciences of the 57-countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the OIC science community worldwide.
Bangladesh has been hosting the Islamic University of Technology (IUT), a subsidiary organ of OIC that is contributing to human resource development of the member states, to build Islamic scholars and scientists.
As part of its ‘Vision 2021’, Hasina said, her government aims to establish a knowledge-based and technology-dependent Digital Bangladesh by the year 2021 when Bangladesh will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of her independence.
She recalled the golden age of the Muslims and contribution of Muslim scholars to the evolution of science and technology-- astronomy, mathematics and every discipline of physical science, including medical science.
Hasina mentioned that the Muslims have a rich history for which they can be proud of. “Our past generations have done their part well and it is now our job to build further on their achievements.”
The 19th International Conference of Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS) is expected to be an occasion for the host country to showcase its best practices and successes in the broad areas of science, applied science and technology like healthcare delivery system, pharmaceutical industry, renewable energy and e-service.
The conference will highlight issues like science, higher education, energy, public health, pharmaceuticals, climate change, environment, sustainable technology and joint research.
(Courtesy: Dhaka Tribune)
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The change, introduced on 1 May, means google.ps now displays “Palestine” in Arabic and English under Google's logo.
Washington: In a move widely welcomed by Palestinian officials, internet giant Google has brought up the name “Palestine” on its search engine instead of “Palestinian Territories,” following the lead of the UN.
“This is a step in the right direction, a timely step and one that encourages others to join in and give the right definition and name for Palestine instead of Palestinian territories,” Dr Sabri Saidam, advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told the BBC on Friday, May 3.
“Most of the traffic that happens now happens in the virtual world and this means putting Palestine on the virtual map as well as on the geographic maps,” he added.
Palestine Wins UN Recognition
The change, introduced on 1 May, means google.ps now displays “Palestine” in Arabic and English under Google's logo.
The move marks another victory for the Palestinian Authority, after it won a historic upgrade at the United Nations General Assembly in November, gaining the status of non-member observer state.
A Google spokesman said Friday that the company was making the change “across all our products.”
“We're changing the name 'Palestinian Territories' to 'Palestine' across our products,” Google spokesman Nathan Tyler told the BBC on Friday.
“We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries,” he added.
“In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, Icann [the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organization for Standardisation] and other international organizations.”
In November, the UN gave Palestine the status of “non-member observer state”.
The decision by the General Assembly was strongly opposed by Israel and the United States. Previously, Palestine only had “observer entity” status.
It followed an unsuccessful Palestinian bid to join the international body as a full member state in 2011 because of a lack of support in the UN Security Council.
Dr Saidam said that since the UN vote on 29 November, the PA had written to international companies, including Google, asking them to replace their usage of “Palestinian Territories” with “Palestine”.
Israel Criticism
Unlike Palestinian welcome, Google move was criticized by Israeli officials.
“This change raises questions about the reasons behind this surprising involvement of what is basically a private internet company in international politics, and on the controversial side,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, told Agence France Press (AFP) news agency.Yet, Palmor put down the significance of Google move.
“It has no diplomatic or political significance,” Palmor told an Israeli news Web site on Friday.“Precisely because Google is not the UN or any international diplomatic institution, this begs the question of whether there is room for any political stance on controversial issues.”
Israel occupied Palestinian lands along with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East War.
Israel returned Sinai Peninsula to Egypt under the 1979 Camp David peace accords.Last May, US president Barack Obama has called for a Middle East peace settlement based on the pre-1967 borders.
Yet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defiantly rejected calls for Israel’s withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders.
In 2010, US-sponsored peace negotiations broke down over Israel’s refusal to halt settlement building in the occupied Palestinian lands.
The Palestinians insist that Israel ceases all settlement activities in the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) to return to the peace talks.
(Courtesy: OnIslam.net)
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Leader in executive education, MILE, announces Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance as its Knowledge Partner.
IMO News Service
Dubai: When Islamic finance meets entrepreneurship, Madinah Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship (MILE), the Muslim world’s pre-eminent executive education institute, leads the way. Today MILE announced that it has selected Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance, the global leader in Islamic finance certification, as MILE’s Knowledge Partner.
Dr. Mohamed Mahmoud, Executive Director at MILE, said, “We are very excited to partner with Ethica. They bring an unparalleled combination of global reach, executive excellence, and authentic standardization that makes them the obvious choice as MILE’s Knowledge Partner. MILE’s ‘High Performance Islamic Finance’ (HPIF) program launches next month and we expect a sizable gathering of executives from across the globe to attend.”
Ethica’s spokesperson said, “MILE reaches out to Muslim professionals across the world, including those looking at a career in Islamic finance but who do not know where to begin. With Ethica’s certification programs now also offered through MILE, we hope to serve this community with the same excellence that MILE brings to leadership and entrepreneurship.”
MILE is focused on building leadership and entrepreneurial excellence in the Arab and Muslim world. By grooming tomorrow’s leaders with the practical tools needed to succeed, the non-profit organization plays a fundamental role in the success of the region and beyond. With the overall slowdown in the banking world, many practitioners are now looking at entrepreneurial opportunities within the Islamic finance industry. The Ethica-MILE collaboration promises to offer these practitioners with the skills to make the transition into Islamic finance entrepreneurship.
Ethica will be at the June 15-20 ‘High Performance Islamic Finance’ (HPIF) program in Madinah where participants will receive special discounts to Ethica’s award-winning Certified Islamic Finance Executive (CIFE) program.
About Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance
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Winner of "Best Islamic Finance Qualification" at the Global Islamic Finance Awards, Ethica is chosen by more professionals for Islamic finance certification than any other organization in the world. Training and certifying thousands of professionals in over 100 financial institutions in 47 countries, Ethica’s 4-month Certified Islamic Finance Executive (CIFE) is the only globally recognized certificate accredited by scholars to fully comply with AAOIFI, the world's leading Islamic finance standard. Ethica’s award-winning CIFE is delivered 100% online or live at the bank. The Dubai-based institute is now supported by Licensed Ethica Resellers in 11 countries. For more information, please call +971-4-455-8690 or e-mail at info@ethicainstitute.com
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New Delhi: Indian author Saniyasnain Khan has bagged the Sharjah Children's Book Award for his book, 'The Story of Khadija'.
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The award carries a cash prize of Emirati Dirham 15,000 ( Rs. 200,000). To encourage authors and creative minds specialising in children's literature, the Sharjah.
Children's Reading Festival honours exceptional works in the field with a number of awards every year, said a statement.
"It has always been my dream to write books for children to help them discover the good values of Islam. The honour bestowed upon me strengthens my belief and will encourage me to continue working in this field," Khan said in a statement.
He also hosts a weekly TV programme, "Islam For Kids", on ETV Urdu in India.
'The Story of Khadija' is based on the life of Prophet Muhammad's wife.
The book has been translated into French, German, Turkish, Malay and Arabic.
(Courtesy: Hindustan Times)
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By Mike Ghouse
I am honored to be a part of the History of the state of Karnataka, and a recipient of one of the two brass busts of Tippu Sultan made on the 200th commemoration. I am glad to be a part of the history, but I am not history yet.
Tippu Sultan's vision of India was Swaraj (self rule) not British Raj. He was killed in the 4th war of Mysore against the British on this day, May 4th 1799. History records that his confidant and assistant leaked the information to the British about Tippu’s whereabouts and that’s how the native kingdom fell to the colonists.
On the bi-centennial commemoration of his death in 1999, two brass busts were made. One is with former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, then Chief Minister Deve Gowda, and other one was presented to me by Dr. Range Gowda, an expert on Tippu Sultan and author of many books. Indeed, when my father was running for the City council, it was festivity at our home, the public address systems (we called it loud speakers then) were set and Lavani (folk singing in Kannada Language) were sung, how Poornayya, Tippu’s deputy betrayed him. I am trying to recall that in Kannada with failures. My father was also elected Mayor of the city back in 1952, and he was elected on the day I was born or vice-versa.
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In a free society, falsities come with the facts, and we have to live with it. I have been to all his places. Indeed his Toop Khana - the artillery depot sat next to my house in Yelahanka, the wall of our house joined the wall of Tippu's depot known as Chattra now - where they conduct weddings, and my sister’s wedding was conducted in it and my best friend Jaichand Sugalchand Sajjanraj Jain’s wedding was also conducted there.
When I was a kid, I messed with everything my Dad did, in front of our house, while digging for a wall, I jumped into the trench to dig foundation with axe, boom, one hit, and there was a massive hole. I screamed and came out of the trench, later it took truck loads of dirt to fill it in. and they said it was Tippu's tunnel. No one verified or reported that to anyone. Unfortunately that is not a custom in India. We don't value the old stuff unlike here in America, which would have become a heritage.
The house we lived was the house where Kempe Gowda, founder of Bangalore lived. I have asked my nephew to save the 500 year old rosewood columns and the arches, and I hope to do something with it. It is historical.
Tippu goes on the record as the only 2nd head of the state in human history that was on the front line of battle field defending his state. He also has a record among all the British colonies to be the only one who captured and imprisoned the British soldiers.
The Kingdom of Mysore was also among three nations in the world that recognized American Independence and apparently July 4th was celebrated in Sri Rangapatna, the State Capital of Mysore in 1776.
Don’t forget he is the father of Rockets and inventor of Torpedo, known as Bangalore Torpedo. The British and American scientists have given him due recognition. Indeed, India’s first satellite was made in Bangalore as well.
[Mike Ghouseis committed to building cohesive societies where no people have to live in anxieties, discomfort or fear of the others. He is a frequent guest at the TV, radio and print media offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. Mike Ghouse is associated with IndianMuslimObserver.com as Foreign Editor. He can be contacted at MikeGhouse@aol.com]
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The Federation of Muslim Organizations has expressed shock over the contamination.
London: Traces of pork have been found in halal burgers served in schools in Leicester, prompting Muslim groups in the UK to consider legal action.
Leicester City Council said the tests were carried out as a result of the horsemeat scandal and now the frozen burgers have been withdrawn from schools in the East Midlands city.
"The community will be extremely shocked and distressed to learn of the contamination that has taken place," said a spokesperson from the Federation of Muslim Organizations (FMO).
"The FMO is working closely with the local authority and calling on them to take legal action in respect of this contamination and would urge the local authority to instigate criminal proceedings against the company involved under the Food Safety Act.
"The FMO feel that such a prosecution would be in the public interest and would send a clear message to all businesses in this sector that contamination will not be tolerated," he added. The test batch of frozen burgers were manufactured by Doncaster-based Paragon Quality Foods Limited in January and the company has not commented on the scandal so far.
"I am appalled by this situation. It is disgraceful that none of us can have confidence in the food we eat," assistant city mayor Vi Dempster, adding that letters had been sent to 6,000 families that could have been affected.
"We should all be able to have confidence in the food we are eating and clearly this is a particularly sensitive matter for the Muslim community and we recognise that," she added. The Food Standards Agency and Doncaster Metropolitan Council have launched their own investigations and further tests will be taken of the remaining stock, Leicester city council said.
(Courtesy: The Times of India)
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From astrolabes to ceramic bowls, the collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid offers an ample scope of Andalusi art forms and techniques
By Mohammed Elrazzaz
Unlike other Spanish cities, Madrid’s Islamic past is not easily visible to today’s visitor. It takes a visit to the Arab city walls to get a feel for the city's Andalusi origin. Founded by Emir Mohamed I between 860 - 880 as Majrit (the Arabic name that was distorted to Madrid), the city originally served as a military camp meant to defend al-Andalus against the alarming power of the emerging Leon. It finally fell to Alfonso VI in 1085 and it remains to be remembered in the Muslim world today for being the birthplace of the great mathematician, Maslama al-Majriti (literally, the one from Madrid).
The National Archaeological Museum of Madrid has one of the finest collections of Andalusi art (also known by some art historians as Hispano-Islamic art) in the whole world. From astrolabes to ceramic bowls, the collection offers an ample scope of art forms and techniques. Ahram Online chooses three of the collection’s highlights to guide the reader through the arts and crafts of al-Andalus.
The Pyxis of Zamora
Ivory carving reached unprecedented heights in al-Andalus, in large part due to a Byzantine inspiration. Exchanging gifts between the Umayyad and the Byzantine rulers was common practice and the carved ivory panels and caskets that reached al-Andalus from Constantinople left quite an impression on them. As a reaction, several workshops started appearing in cities like Cuenca and it became fashionable for caliphs and military leaders to commission these workshops to manufacture ivory pyxies, caskets and cups as gifts for their wives and sons.
One such gift is the Pyxis of Zamora, dating from the tenth century. Named after Zamora, where it was found, it was originally manufactured in Medina Azahra (outside Cordoba) by ad-Durri as-Saghir for the order of Caliph al-Hakam II, who presented it as a gift to his wife Subh.
The pictorial scheme used in decorating the pyxis resembles a geometrical jungle in miniature, reminiscent of Persian gardens, where gazelles and peacocks seem at home. An elegant band of calligraphy (tiraz) brings a change of rhythm to the cylindrical body, counterbalancing the exuberant decoration. The lid is conical in shape and rests harmoniously on top of the pyxis.
The Casket of Palencia
This casket is a splendid example of the Andalusi artisans’ ability to work with different materials and fuse them into a harmonious whole. Wood, copper, enamel and ivory are all elements used in this casket, manufactured by Abd al-Rahman ben Zayyan in the Cuenca workshop around the mid-11th century during the era of the Taifa kingdoms.
Originally presented as a gift to Ismail ibn al-Maamun, one of the sons of the ruler of Toledo, it ended up in the Cathedral of Palencia where it housed relics, just as many other objects that were recycled into religious functions in the Catholic world.
Just like the Pyxis of Zamora, one can see more gazelles and birds, with the addition of lions devouring gazelles (symbolic of the triumph of Islam over its enemies), but the protagonism here is assumed by the recurring motif of the floral leaves in the surface decoration. This technique, known as 'ataurique' (from the Arabic al-tawriq, or the use of leaves as decoration) is a recurring element in Andalusi art. Again, a band of calligraphy in Kufic (early Arabic) script decorates the casket.
Gazelle fountain spout from Medina Azahra
Little remains of the former glory of Medina Azahra, founded by Abd al-Rahman III in the 10th century and destroyed by the Berbers in 1009. Nevertheless, once the name is mentioned, the most iconic image that comes to mind is that of the fountain spouts in the form of gazelles that survived the demolition.
The gazelle at the museum in Madrid is made of gold-plated bronze and almost the entire surface is decorated in bas-relief with stylised circles and stars. The body encases the tube and the water exits from the open mouth. Moreover, the body is clearly out of proportion, and some art critics speculate that it was purposeful: many Muslim artists wanted to avoid close imitation of human and animal forms so as to not to cross the line and offend iconoclasts. Islamic art is, after all, nonfigurative to some extent.
The triumph of crafts and art objects
The term ‘Andalusi Art’ typically evokes mental images of the Alhambra of Granada, the Great Mosque of Cordoba and the Giralda tower of Seville. However, beyond the obvious monumentality of these buildings - all recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites - another dimension of Andalusi creativity remains unknown to many: the realm of Islamic crafts and art objects. Every day, visitors queue up to admire the Pyxis of al-Mughira in the Louvre or the Pyxis of Zamora in the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid. They may be overshadowed by other items from these museums’ collections, but anyone with a passion for the art and culture of al-Andalus should learn about them and inspect them closely, because the shapes and motifs would slowly unfold into metaphors of a golden age that left behind this unique legacy.
(Courtesy: AhramOnline)
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By Liyanage Amarakeerthi
When I heard about the Boston explosions I had many hopes. First, I hoped that my teacher, who is at Harvard, was safe. Second, I hoped no one was killed. Third, I hoped there was no any Muslim connection to the explosion. Finally, I hoped Boston, one of my favourite American cities, liberal, leftwing, cosmopolitan and intellectually bent, was not disrupted by any fundamentalist attacks, internal or external.
I found out soon enough that my teacher was safe. Sadly, some people died, including an eight-year old boy- someone from my son’s generation. America has its own fundamentalists. When it goes to war, America (Washington) itself is fundamentalist. International terrorism is a real problem and all fundamentalists are party to that terrorism. America’s not-so-democratic acts in the past also keep following like the cart behind the oxen as it has in a Dhammapada verse. In Sri Lanka too we have to be mindful of our collective Karma.
My third hope was much more Sri Lankan than personal. In Sri Lanka, Bodu Bala Sena (‘the army of Buddhist power’) – the newest and crudest version of Sinhala nationalism- is up against Sri Lankan Muslims, claiming that they are invading the social, cultural, economic spheres, pushing aside the Sinhala majority. I do not know the factual position. But the rhetoric seems to suggest something much more dangerous than the facts (even if they are correct) ever could. Some of the BBS (or of the populace attracted to the organization) accusations are really absurd: some Muslim-owned clothing store (a chain of shops in fact) is selling an incredible female underwear that makes Sinhala women barren. The argument is that this shop chain is part of a Muslim conspiracy to reduce the Sinhala population in the country.
One of my friends from Scotland wanted to buy that particular underwear so that he can control the population growth in his country. But, according to the BBS, that underwear only upsets the workings of the relevant organs of Sinhala-Buddhist women! So, he did not buy it. Apart from these absurd claims, there is a real lack of understanding between the two communities for which the civil society of both communities is responsible. It is the lack of understanding that gives rise to these absurd urban myths, which are more political than factual. America too had them: McCarthyism was a result of that and McCarthyism is not totally gone.
I do not know what kinds of myths Muslim fundamentalists in Sri Lanka are propagating against Sinhala people. There must be some equally funny ones. Fundamentalisms are fun if no one believes them; but many do. Sinhala people certainly do: look at Facebook.
Anyway, I hoped that there was nothing Muslim about the Boston bombing because the Sinhala racist BBS who would have benefited by it. (The BBS leaders were to visit the US when the explosion occurred. There is an argument that the US is happy for the BBS because they are against Muslims: I hope the argument is wrong.) They would have claimed that their fight against Sri Lankan Muslims was right and based on facts. Yes. Islamic fundamentalism is much more global than Sinhala fundamentalism and we all have to be aware of that fact while being cognizant that US imperialism actually helps Islamic fundamentalism. Islamic civilization, however, is not all about fundamentalisms or parochialisms. It has a great history of mutual understanding and sharing. Amartaya Sen’s Argumentative Indian (2005) describes some aspects of it. According to Sen, there were some Muslim kings and queens who encouraged democratic debate and participated in them. They saw themselves as Indians not as Arabs.
Scholarly work
There are a significant number of scholarly works highlighting Islamic contributions to human civilization. The Ornament of the World, by Professor Maria Rosa Menocal shows how Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities contributed to the creation of European culture in medieval Spain. Living in Spain when writing this essay, I can see even today hues and flavours of Islam and Arabic culture in an ancient city like Santiago de Compostela, even though the beautiful city is markedly Catholic.
Many Indian scholarly works on Urdu and Hindi literature show how Islamic culture contributed to the making of modern literary cultures in South Asia. The new literary genres brought to South Asia by Islamic scholars and writers made our literary culture even richer. Ghazal would be a famous example. Professor Shamur Rahman Faruqui’s excellent book Early Urdu Literary Culture and History is one of those books I studied with one of the great teachers of mine: Professor Muhammad Umar Memon. When reading Faruqui’s book I always wondered why Sri Lankan Muslim scholars could not engage in such studies. I am still to see a systematic study of Sri Lankan Muslim literature. There may be things in Tamil, I am sure. But our Muslim scholars must present such studies in a way that deepens our inter-ethnic understanding. One aim of their scholarship must be to develop a dialogue with the Sinhala community. To say that is not a pro-majority argument but a cosmopolitan one.
Only my friend, a brilliant poet and scholar, Professor M. A. Nuhman, has made such an attempt worth noting. His recent interview with the Sinhala daily Janarala was a window to the heart of a moderate and liberal Muslim intellectual. We need more like him. (There are some books by Nilar N. Casim, but they are more journalistic than scholarly).
Creating new knowledge
Three days after the Boston bombs, Professor Cesar Dominquez, a rising star in the field of Comparative Literature in Europe, showed me his copy of a brand new book that Routledge has published this year: World Literature: A Reader. It is edited by Theo D’haen, Mada Rosendhal Thomson and Dominguez himself. This collection of essays is sure to enrich our knowledge of the globally-rooted human activity called ‘literary writing.’ But the first essay of the book immediately captured my attention. I borrowed the book right away because there was something in it I want to share with Sri Lankan readers as soon as possible in this age of Bodu Bala Sena.
The essay is an excerpt from a book written by a Spanish Jesuit scholar named Juan Andres and published between 1782 and 1799. Its translator, Cesar Dominguez and the editors, widen our knowledge on the concept of world literature by presenting it as the first chapter of the book. The origin of the concept of “world literature” in the West is often attributed to Goethe. This piece shows that the concept has somewhat older antecedents in Europe. Juan Andres has undertaken to write a multi-volume literary history in Italian under the title of On the Origin, Progress and the Present State of All Literature covering Persian, Indian, Chinese and Arabic literatures, in addition literature in European languages. During the author’s lifetime alone, the book has gone into many editions.
The book is significant in more than one way. One of the features I like to highlight in this short essay is Juan Andres’ unfailing acknowledgement of the contribution of non-European people to the making of world literature. He points out that modern European literature is indebted to Arabic literature, for the latter has enriched the former by “re-establishing the belles lettres” or artistic writing.
“The Arabs”, continues Andres, “with their translations and studies, partly increased Greek science and, via Spain, introduced the natural sciences into Europe. They also, by cultivating all the branches of the belles lettres, gave rise to both a new kind of poetry in our regions and improved our culture and our vernacular languages. Literature was, therefore, reborn in Europe.”
Observe the Jesuit-priest author’s generous words in appreciating Arabic (Islamic) contribution to modern world literature. He also praises Indian and Chinese literature in words that were difficult to find in those early days of “Orientalism”.
Understanding ourselves anew
We in Sri Lanka must understand anew our shared humanity and culture rather than falling into the traps of cultural purisms. In this, the Buddhist fundamentalism of Bodu Bala Sena is not going to help us, and, in fact, they are there to destroy our collective memory of commonality. The ideological fathers of this group are still to say a word about their uncultured progeny. Having heard savagely racist speeches the leaders of BBS made in Kandy it is a euphemism to call them ‘uncultured.’ The response to this group from moderate Muslims is far from appealing and convincing. I did not see any Muslim intellectuals saying anything, in Sinhala or English, asking both Sinhala and Muslim communities to understand their shared history and culture that go back many centuries.
Sinhala community has to realize that our Sinhalaness is a product of many cultural sharings and borrowings. If we were to give away supposedly Muslim elements in our food, so-called Sinhala cuisine will be devoid of some its great flavours and some subtle taste buds in our ‘Sinhala’ tongues will be dried up like fish without water.
People like Samuel Huntington have set up a trap for us in South Asia. Huntington was an ideologue of the American right and of American imperialism and his Clash of Civilizations is a programmatic text for American imperialism. The way he describes the world in it is too simple, flat and one-dimensional. Just remember the way he casts the world under monolithic identities. For example, India for him, for example, is Hindu. He ignores the fact that so-called Hindu India is a fine mixture of many cultures, differences and languages. For Huntington, Sri Lanka is just Buddhist: no wonder some Buddhist nationalists are big fans of this American rightwing ideologue.
Groups like BBS are too dangerous to ignore but too parochial to take seriously. While watching what they are doing, it is better for us all communities to understand our shared history, shared everyday life. The week Bodu Bala Sena came to Kandy I started my lectures on Comparative Literature at Peradeniya, and my first reading assignment was three stories by Sri Lankan Muslim writers from the collection Asalawesi Api, edited by Professors Carmen Wickramagamage and M. A. Nuhman. In those stories, the feelings of attachment to certain villages, soil, farmland and so on in those Muslim villagers were very similar to ours. Those students who read them rejoiced in the discovery of commonness found in them.
Yet again, I heard there were so many university students at the BBS rally, cheering the racist speeches. It is very easy to instigate communal feelings and it does not take a whole lot of learning to do so. To understand how communities collectively create cultures and civilizations, one needs some effort and learning.
We can either take up that challenge or sadly observe a country that has a great cosmopolitan history and culture disintegrate into fragments from which we will never find our cultural or human wholeness and wholesomeness.
When I end this essay, I wish I could sit with the Jesuit priest Juan Andres to have a cup of tea (or coffee if he prefers,) who wanted to write a literary history in which he was to pay tribute to every human community that contributed to making of notion of literature: one of the greatest human creations. I will never have that sense of belonging to the likes of the BBS leaders, in spite of my Buddhist upbringing, even if tea or coffee is replaced with a bottle of arrack! Arrack is one of those Sri Lankan cultural products, Cumaratunga Munidasa, a great defender of arrack industry in the country, would have agreed, which is too good to share with racists!
(Courtesy: Colombo Telegraph)
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By Aijaz Zaka Syed
The truth that makes men free is often the truth that men prefer not to hear, said a sage. The initial shock over the two Chechen brothers’ apparent involvement in the Boston bombings has been followed by an endless hysteria in the United States with politicians and all sorts of terrorism experts and media wonks, rushing to blame the usual suspects and the ‘ideology’ that inspired the attack.
Neocon pundit Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, who has made a career out of Muslim bashing, has triumphantly declared Islam as the “real problem.” In a piece titled “Excusing Jihad in Boston,” he blasts the US media for “underplaying the religious angle” in the attack, claiming Qur’an exhorts Muslims to use the “steeds of war to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies.”
Bruce Bawer of FrontPage has declared an open war on Islam and its followers saying, “All we need to know is that the attackers were jihadists, and therefore our enemy.” Think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute are pitching the same line to claim the land of the free is under attack from “Islamic terrorists” because of its glorious democracy and freedom.
And it’s not just a right-wing fringe that seems to think so. Liberal, the world-is-flat pundit like Tom Friedman of the New York Times slams “radical Muslim groups and their apologists” for daring to suggest that Boston may have been a response to the continuing US wars.
Indeed, Friedman goes a step further: “We surely mustn’t tar all of Islam in this. But we must ask a question only Muslims can answer: What’s going on in your community that a critical number of your youth believes every American military action in the Middle East is intolerable and justifies a violent response, and everything Muslim extremists do to other Muslims is ignorable and calls for mostly silence?”
In other words, the ‘problem’ lies with Islam and its followers. Another liberal Andrew Sullivan of the Daily Beast had this to say: “All religions contain elements of this kind of fanaticism. But Islam’s fanatical side from the Taliban to the Tsarnaevs is more murderous than most.”
Can there be a bigger lie than this? Of course, there is no excuse or justification by any long stretch for murder and mayhem targeting innocent people. This is something on which Islamic scholars, intellectuals and even ordinary people are totally united and have repeatedly stressed it. Despicable actions like the one that targeted the Boston Marathon go against the fundamental teachings and spirit of the faith that strictly forbids strife and killing innocent civilians even during wars. But then these actions had nothing to do with Islam.
The issue is not with Islam or the bloodlust of its followers. The problem is with the reigning superpower and its unquenchable thirst for global power and total supremacy. The motives of the brothers Tsarnaev were not religious but political, as has been the case with numerous other such attacks in the past.
Check out this report in the Washington Post, the voice of US establishment: “The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston bombings has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the attack. The officials said, “Dzhokhar and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev do not appear to have been directed by a foreign terrorist organization. Rather, the officials said, the evidence so far suggests they were “self-radicalized” through Internet sites and US actions in the Muslim world. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has specifically cited the US war in Iraq and in Afghanistan.”
In a courageous piece in the Guardian, American journalist and author Glenn Greenwald argues that his country is living in denial about the roots of terror by portraying Islam as a militant religion while ignoring the horrific violence and destruction it has unleashed on the Muslim world. Greenwald cites the last four attempted or successful attacks on the US soil to support his argument:
Attempted “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab said upon pleading guilty that he wanted to “attack the US in retaliation for US support of Israel and for the killing of innocent Muslims in Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and beyond.”
Attempted Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, a middle-class naturalized American, said he was motivated by “US policies in the Muslim world.” When the presiding judge quizzed him how he could have killed innocent children, he replied: “Well, the drone hits in Afghanistan and Iraq, they don’t see children, they don’t see anybody. They kill women, children, they kill everybody. It’s a war, and in war, they kill people. They’re killing all Muslims. I am part of the answer to the US terrorizing the Muslim nations and people. Americans only care about their own people; they don’t care about the people elsewhere in the world when they die.”Attempted New York subway bomber Najibullah Zazi, first Afghan American involved in such a plot, told the judge that he did so “because of what the US was doing in Afghanistan.”
Major Nidal Hasan, the military instructor who went on the rampage at Fort Hood killing several of his comrades in arms, said he did it because of his “deep anguish” over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even the American Yemeni preacher, Anwar Al-Awalaki, who apparently inspired both Abdulmutallab and Hasan, was once considered a “moderate imam.” The Pentagon included him in post-9/11 community events and Washington Post invited him to write a column. Al-Awalakai flipped after the attack on Iraq. He was killed in a drone strike in Yemen, the first American to be killed by his own government. His 16-year old, all-American son met the same fate two weeks later when he went to visit his father’s family in Yemen.
If these instances, indefensible as they are, do not amply prove that it’s not Islamic beliefs or teachings but unjust US-Western policies and wars that are at the heart of terror and this explosive conflict, what will?
Yet the empire, as all empires do, continues to live in denial blaming everyone and everything else but its own hubris. Indeed, the more anger and frustration the US policies and actions provoke around the world the deeper America seems to stick its head in the sand. It not only refuses to confront the roots of this corrosive rage, it’s actually adding fuel to the fire.
Many of us hoped things would change under President Barack Hussein Obama because of his background and lofty promises. How wrong we all were! Look at the endless genuflection fest that was Obama’s recent visit to Israel. Someone who passionately talked of the Palestinians’ right to their homeland in Cairo in 2009 now lectures the occupied to be more “realistic” and continue talking peace with Israel even as the last remaining piece of their land is gobbled up by Israeli settlements. It’s this hypocrisy and abject American surrender to Israel that feeds Muslim angst.
This president is bending over backward to prove he’s not a closet Muslim or “socialist Muslim,’ as he joked this week. Jeremy Scahill’s book, Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield, released last week just before the movie by the same name, paints a frightening picture of the US militarism under Obama that kills at will and makes no distinction between terrorists and innocent bystanders.
Yet the Americans are outraged when faced with a backlash. In Greenwald’s words, they seem to think “we can invade, bomb, drone, kill, occupy, and tyrannize whomever we want, and that they will never respond. If you believe militarism and aggression are justified, then fine. But don’t walk around acting surprised when violence is brought to US soil. It’s the inevitable outcome of these choices, and that’s not because Islam is some sort of bizarre or intrinsically violent religion.”
Will this cycle of violence and cause-and-effect ever end? The answer lies in the question in itself. Blaming Boston on Islam will not help America tackle the spectre of terror; confronting the truth and roots of this conflict will.
(Courtesy: Arab News)
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By Sarah Parvini
Mahmoud Adel-Baset was shocked when he found out Pope Francis washed two Muslim inmates' feet during Holy Thursday last month.
Chairman of the religious committee at the Islamic Center of Southern California, Adel-Baset saw the gesture as a "new kind of hope" and an opportunity for stronger relations between the Muslim and Catholic community.
"I thought, 'Wow,'" he recalls. "This is something Mother Teresa does, not the Pope."He found himself speechless once more after the new pontiff urged the West to intensify dialogue with Islam.
He isn't alone. Many in Los Angeles' Muslim community view Francis' actions as a catalyst for bolstered relations — relations they hope will continue with a renewal of the Catholic-Muslim forum, a three-day interreligious summit that first took place in 2008. The first-ever conference opened "a new chapter in the long history" of dialogue between the two faiths.
"We anticipate a stronger, more cordial relationship," Adel-Baset says. 'Francis' actions so far are amazing."
While interfaith relations between Catholics and Muslims have come a long way since the Crusades, some Muslims say Pope Benedict XVI, who announced his resignation from the papacy in February, did little to engage with Islam.
Under Benedict, dialogue between the two religions took a turn toward the tumultuous. At the University of Regensburg in 2006, Benedict quoted a Byzantine Emperor, saying, "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman."
The Pope quickly responded to criticism and apologized for the reactions his remarks elicited from the Muslim community.
"I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims. These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought."
But Yasmin Nouh, 22, believes that with Francis' leadership, there is potential for the world's 1.2 billion Catholics and 1.6 billion Muslims to come together and tackle universal concerns, such as poverty — something the pope has been outspoken about since his election one month ago, when he asked for "a poor Church and [a Church] for the poor."
American Muslims are confident
"American Muslims feel confident that Pope Francis will make significant strides in building upon the foundation of interfaith trust and respect," says Nouh, who works for the Greater Los Angeles branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Intensified dialogue between the two faiths began in 2007, when Muslim scholars released an open letter entitled "A Common Word Between Us and You" to the world's Christians, inviting religious leaders to seek common ground. Shortly after, the Catholic-Muslim forum was established.
After two of these interfaith summits — a second was held in 2011 — religious leaders have made various pacts, including an agreement that "human life should ... be preserved and honored in all its stages" and that "religious minorities are entitled ... to their own places of worship."
For many Muslims, the pope's namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, offers clues to his position on interfaith relations.
According to a 13th-century tale, the Franciscan monk crossed enemy lines and spoke with the sultan of Egypt, Malik al-Kamil, during the height of the Crusades. The meeting left an indelible mark on St. Francis and led him to ask members of his nascent order to be more understanding of Islam. Many believe the visit marked a pivotal moment in interfaith dialogue and provides the current pontiff with a model for Muslim engagement.
"There is a rich tradition of dialogue between Muslims and Catholics," Nouh says. "I expect Pope Francis will continue the [Catholic-Muslim] forum and create a space to come together for honest and sincere conversation."
Though church attendance is falling among U.S. Catholics — the share of Catholics who say they attend mass at least once a week has dropped from 47 percent in 1974 to 24 percent in 2012 — combined, Christians and Muslims make up nearly half of the global population.
More light and less heat
The Rev. James Heft, a religion professor at the University of Southern California, says the interfaith relationship is important for that reason: Better communication is required to reduce the possibility of needless conflict between religious titans.
"What we need most is more light and less heat," Heft says. "That is usually generated through careful conversation over time."
But some say Francis' power is limited to that of a figurehead: his outreach, which is symbolic at best.
Eric Hanson, an expert in Vatican politics at Santa Clara University, argues that conversation will be continued under the new pope, but that he alone cannot change the course of interfaith relations.
"Francis will be good at coverage at the top," Hanson says. "But dialogue takes place at a whole bunch of levels — religious leaders, theologians, practitioners — and those nuanced levels are what will lead to a better world."
Hanson says Catholic-Muslim dialogue is vital for the future of international relations, particularly in regions where a Catholic majority lives with a Muslim minority — as in the Philippines — or where a Muslim majority lives with a Christian minority — as in Indonesia.
"There's an awful lot of places where Christians and Muslims come into close contact," Hanson says. "The emphasis is going to shift to the Third World, and part of that is growth of Islam. I would expect Francis to be better for that sort of dialogue."
Hanson's argument resonates with many L.A. Muslims, such as Edina Lekovic. While her expectations of Francis were low when he was first elected, she now believes his actions have heralded a new era of cooperation. She says interfaith relationships are important because to be religious in the 21st century is to be interreligious.
"The message of interfaith dialogue is critical," says Lekovic, who works as director of public policy and planning at the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles. "Francis is creating higher expectations because he started off on the right foot with goodwill gestures."
Adel-Baset echoes Lekovic's sentiments. He believes Francis has the ability to move the masses and propel interfaith relations. Reports from Argentina show Francis, as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, was a steadfast friend of the Islamic community.
"One pope can completely damage what his predecessor has accomplished," Adel-Baset says, referring to Benedict's 2006 statement. "But one pope can make a difference. We are very hopeful. This is a man with conviction."
(Courtesy: SCPR.org)
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Many young programmers and information technology professionals are finding freelancing a risk well worth taking.
By Syed Tashfin Chowdhury
Dhaka: In an effort to expand their resumes, opportunities and bank accounts, many young Bangladeshis are working in the competitive world of freelance software development.Software developer Mohsin Kabir, 30, runs a six-person team from the Mirpur suburb in Dhaka, outsourcing work for foreign software companies.
Kabir first tried freelancing in 2008 with a contract that paid him $280 (Tk 21,853).
"It took me 25 days to finish it as I also had to spend more than eight hours at my day job," Kabir told Khabar South Asia. "Handed the same project today, I can finish it in less than a week."
After 25 more projects, Kabir decided to quit his day job to compete directly for foreign projects. "As I took up bigger projects and more money began rolling in, I had to recruit my own team," he said.
The financial rewards are alluring.
"A software developer or IT specialist can have a monthly salary of around Tk 60,000 to 80,000 ($770-$1,025) even after working in the field for four to five years," Kabir said.
"But a recent IT graduate can make at least $10 (Tk 781) per hour by freelancing," he said. "Anyone with more than five to six projects successfully completed can easily earn $20 to $25 (Tk. 1,563-1,953) an hour from the comfort of their own homes."
Freelancing boom
Success stories like his have encouraged thousands of young people to try freelancing. In fact, Bangladesh is currently experiencing a freelancing boom.
The trend has been noted by the Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services (BASIS) and the government. Both are trying to assist further growth of the lucrative sector.As part of that effort, BASIS presented its third Outsourcing Awards ceremony on April 20th in Dhaka. One hundred awards were handed out to outsourcing companies, freelancers and the best female outsourcers.
"Initially, this was called the freelancing award where 10 to 12 individuals received awards," BASIS President and chief executive officer of BDjobs.com Fahir Mashroor, told Khabar. "But over the last two years, those award-winning freelancers initiated their own outsourcing companies, some of which won awards today."
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Secretary Mohammad Nazrul Islam Khan told Khabar the government is trying to boost the sector that currently earns over $100m per year for the country; it is now growing at an annual rate of 56%, outpacing most other export sectors.
ICT companies and professionals enjoy tax-free income, because they are part of a government-designated "thrust sector", and a long-anticipated ICT Park is scheduled for ground breaking sometime this year, Khan said.
The proposed 230-acre ICT Park in Kaliakoir, northwest of Dhaka, would provide high-speed internet connectivity, uninterrupted power supply and other facilities for developers and IT professionals. Mashroor said the park should be completed in the next four-to-five years.
Solutions in the pipeline
Some gnawing problems plague the sector though, which the government is hoping to resolve.Award-winning freelancer Sajib Sarkar, 30, told Khabar that slow internet is a big problem outside Dhaka, which has forced him to live in the capital rather than in his home village of Jhenidah district with his family. "This is the case at all the districts and rural parts of the country," he said.
Sarkar also said most freelancers bid for projects with skills learned on their own and that "more training in these areas would help".
Khan, the ICT secretary, told Khabar by early May, the Ministry will initiate two training sessions in all 64 districts and that ICT incubators will be set up at all universities outside Dhaka. Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) will receive the first.
(Courtesy: Khabar South Asia)
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Bangalore: As many as 11 Muslims candidates got elected for 224 member Karnataka assembly today. Election for which was conducted on May 5 and result was declared today. The number is four more than last assembly elections in which seven Muslims were elected.In the latest elections 9 Muslim candidates have got elected on congress ticket while two are elected on JDS ticket.
The winners are :-
Shivajinagar – R.Roshan Baig – Indian National CongressBelgaum Uttar – Fairoz Nuruddin Saith – Indian National CongressBijapur Ciy – Makbul S Bagawan – Indian National CongressChamrajpet – B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan – Janata Dal (Secular)Gangawati – Iqbal Ansari – Janata Dal (Secular)Gulbarga Uttar – Qamar ul Islam – Indian National CongressMangalore – UT Khader – Indian National CongressMangalore City North – B.A.Mohiuddin Bava – Indian National CongressNarasimharaja – Tanveer Sait – Indian National CongressShanti Nagar – N.A.Haris – Indian National CongressTumkur City – Dr. Rafeeq Ahmed S. – Indian National Congress
There were five candidates who got second position in the elections.
Of 224 seats election were held for 223 seats and all results have come now. Congress has won 121 seats while BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) got 40 seats.
(Courtesy: The Indian Awaaz)
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By Melvyn Reggie Thomas
Surat: Muslims from Gujarat and Maharashtra are expected to attend in huge numbers the first-ever national conference to discuss the '21st century's socio-economic challenges' before them here on Sunday.
The national conference, aimed at spreading awareness among the minority community, especially the Muslims on the welfare schemes of the government and its effective implementation for the socio-economic empowerment, will be held under the presence of cleric Maulana Mohammad Fazlur Rahim Mujaddidi, chairman of Strive for Eminence and Empowerment (SEE) and Hazrat Maulana Qari Rashid Ahmed Ajmeri, a cleric from Surat.
Maulana Mohammed Fazlur Rahim Mujaddidi, who is also the member of steering committee of the Planning Commission, recently led a campaign for substantial increase in the funds in the 12th Five-Year-Plan (2012-2017) for the welfare of minorities, especially Muslims.
Union minister of external affairs, Salman Khurshid, Union coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, Union minister of minority affairs, K Rahman Khan, Union HRD minister Dr M Pallam Raju, member of Planning Commission, Syeda Hameed, and National Commission for Minorities chairman, Wajahat Habeebullah, will be present.
The organizing committee members said a special cell has been formed under the leadership of SEE chairman to keep an eye on various government schemes for the minorities and to make sure that they take maximum benefits out of them. The conference will motivate the community members for taking active part in the welfare schemes for their socio-economic development.
Mohammed Hanif Boga, an organizing committee member, said, "All the 11 Five-Year plans announced after India's Independence have gone unused by the Muslim community due to their ignorance and illiteracy. But, now Muslims under the leadership of SEE chairman have awakened. This is the first ever conference in western India and Surat has been selected as the host city."
(Courtesy: The Times of India)
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