ISLAM IN THE WEST

Aspiring to a better standard of living, Cambodia’s Muslims are dreaming of introducing Islamic finance to the Buddhist country to lure investments from the Muslim-majority states in the Middle East and Asia. “Most investors in the Middle East are certainly looking for Islamic-compliant business in countries that are not majority Muslim,” Ashraf Bin Md Hashim, head of consultancy at the International Sharia Research Academy for Islamic Finance, told the Phnom Penh Post. Speaking on the sidelines of Cambodia’s first conference on halal finance last fortnight, hosted by Cambodian Intelligent Investor Organization, Hashim said that Islamic finance is almost non-existent among Cambodia’s Muslims. Cambodian Muslims hope that by introducing Islamic finance, already booming in Malaysia and Middle Eastern countries, they could dominate trade with those countries and attract investment from Islamic banks in the region. This trade would help in improving living standards for Cambodian Muslims, who generally have a lower standard of living than their Khmer countrymen. Muslims make up around 2 percent of Cambodia’s 13 million people, who are mainly Buddhists. Cambodian Muslims are located in towns and rural fishing villages on the banks of the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers and in Kampot Province in the south. The majority of Cambodian Muslims belong to the ethnic group known as Cham– a reference to an ancient empire of warriors.

Celebrating the flourishing era of Islamic culture, the Louvre Museum prepares to unveil a new wing for Arts of Islam. “The whole structure seems to be floating in mid-air,” Mario Bellini, an Italian architect responsible with Rudy Ricciotti for the glass-roofed wing for Islamic art, said. “There are no pillars, you see, and this was a very big challenge.” Preparing to open to the public this summer, the new wing will exhibit more than 18,000 artworks from the Arab world and Europe, some for the first time. Built with the Muslim veil in mind, the museum’s new Arts of Islam wing was modeled on a delicate sheet of silk. Erected within the museum, a curvilinear glass roof covered inside and out with sheets of golden metallic links will shelter art from the Islamic era, grouped together for the first time in one enormous gallery. Designers say they aimed at creating a “gentle and non-violent integration” of an architectural design within a place of historic importance. The collections will be displayed over an area of roughly 3,500 square metres, sub-divided into only two levels. The first floor, at courtyard level, will house works from the seventh to the 10th centuries. The second, in the basement will exhibit works from the 11th to the 19th centuries along with a prestigious collection of carpets. The idea of the huge museum was first suggested in 2002 by former French president, Jacques Chirac when he declared his wish to see a dedicated wing of Islamic art at the museum. Donating €31 million, France covered 30 percent of the whole cost, estimated at about €98.5 million. The project’s biggest sponsor, the Saudi Al Waleed Bin Talal Foundation, gave €17m as soon as the project was announced. A further €30m was raised from individual and corporate donations, while €26m came from the rulers of Morocco, Kuwait, Oman and Azerbaijan. France is home to a sizable minority of six million Muslims, the largest in Europe.

Canadian Muslim students at Queen University organised a four-day Islamic awareness week, last month, to educate fellow students about their faith and create a forum for interfaith discussions. “Students who don’t know about Islam will hear about it from the movies, and there are misunderstandings that come from these views,” Amr Ewais, chair of Queen’s University Muslim Students Association (QUMSA), told The Journal. The theme for this year’s four-day event was love. QUMSA students said the event is a good opportunity to correct misconceptions associated with their faith. “We have to create a dialogue with the students and tell them that we are just normal people,” Ewais said. QUMSA also runs events and lectures throughout the year as a way to educate and combat prejudice, Ewais said. Muslims make up around 1.9 percent of Canada’s 32.8 million population, and Islam is the number one non-Christian faith in the Roman Catholic country.