The Muslim World

A large mosque that can accommodate upto 5000 worshippers will be built in the southern French city of Marseille. The contract for the construction of the mosque was signed between the Marseille municipality chief and representative of the Muslim community in the city recently. The mosque, which is estimated to cost six million euros will be built in the city centre and is expected to be completed within the coming two years. Nearly 100,000 Muslim immigrants of the city will take advantage of the mosque. The funds for construction of the mosque will be raised through floating of shares as well as through donations from within France and from the Arab and Muslim countries.

A media competition for minds and market share in the Middle East is evolving as a crowd of Western news organisations prepare to deliver headlines and geo-political views in Arabic. Backed by government financing, Germany’s public international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, is poised to beam as much as 24 hours of daily news programming in Arabic soon. France’s yet-to-be-named CNN-style channel is in development for a year-end opening, along with a website in Arabic and later in 2007, an Arabic television version. And the state-owned Russia Today, has similar plans for an Arabic website.

Some 320 historic buildings in Dubai will be restored by 2010 as part of the government’s architectural conservation plans. The civic body has so far restored more than 100 buildings in the Emirate. “Efforts are being made to place historical buildings on the approved list of heritage sites of UNESCO,” said Ahmad Mahmoud, Head of the Historical Building Section at the Dubai Municipality. The UAE would soon have a law on architectural conservation to protect historical buildings and archaeological sites in the country. “The law will help the UAE place its historical buildings and sites on approved list of world heritage sites of UNESCO,” said Mahmoud. Currently, none of the restored historical buildings or archaeological sites in the UAE are recognised by UNESCO. Dubai is trying to enlist at least three of its major historical sites - Shindagha, Bastakia and Hatta Heritage Village with UNESCO.

Malaysia will construct a multi-million dollar sports training centre near London to boost the Asian nation’s less-than-stellar sporting performance. Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Azalina Othman said the centre which is estimated to cost $134.52 million will see aspiring Malaysian athletes train and compete in European tournaments. “Here, they will compete and learn sports skills in a more professional manner,” he added. The centre to be named after former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak, will be built on the Malaysian government-owned land in Brickendonbury, 24 kms from the 2012 London Olympic Sports Village.

Sudan’s Environment and Architectural Development Ministry has agreed with the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and the United Nations Environment Program to prepare a comprehensive study to finance environmental projects and availability of solar energy in remote villages in Darfur as well as in the southern and eastern regions of Sudan. Dr. Ahmad Babakar Nahar, Sudan’s minister of environment and architectural development, said that the study encompasses protection of Dandar Reserve in eastern Sudan and stopping felling of trees.

Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered establishment of five model centres for the treatment of cancer patients in various parts of the country. This will be with the financing of the government as well as with donations from businessmen and philanthropists within Yemen and outside. The centres will be established in Sanaa, Aden, Mokalla, Hudeida, Ta’az and Ebb. The projects will be implemented in two phases. The Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, deputy premier and minister of defence and aviation, gave donations for establishment of a Charity Cancer Centre in Mokalla during his visit to Yemen last month.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia laid the foundation stone for a Saudi Riyal 10 billion, Science and Technology University in Taif recently. The new university will be known as King Abdullah Science and Technology University.Underlying the paramount importance of higher education in science and technology-related subjects, the King said: “The university will be one of the best internationally distinguished centres of scientific research and invention. It will have faculties staffed by scientists of the highest intellectual calibre drawn from different parts of the world”. Higher Education Minister, Khaled Al-Anqari said the university campus will be built on an area over 12 million square meters and will comprise eight faculties specialising in medicine, applied medical sciences, computer and information system studies, science, finance, management, pharmacology, engineering, social sciences and education, with a capacity of 13,000 students of both genders. The campus will also include a 200-bed hospital.

Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments and Guidance Sheikh Saleh Alu Al Sheikh and Dr Ahmad Mohammed Ali, president of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), signed here a contract for the development of the King Abdul Aziz Library Endowment Project, located west of the Prophet’s (Pbuh) Mosque in Madinah. Under the contract, long-term investment would be made for the development of the endowment project, which is estimated to cost Saudi Riyal 312 million. The contract is for the construction of buildings with two separate sections. The first section will be a new state-of-the-art building for King Abdul Aziz Library, whereas the second section would house a hotel with 720 rooms, commercial shops and parking lots.

The International Islamic Fiqh Academy, an offshoot of the Jeddah-based Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), spelt out the Islamic viewpoint with regard to Muslim countries’ relations with others. The 17th annual session of the Academy, held in Amman concluded recently and one of the resolutions was that a Muslim country should not attack any other country in the name of religious differences. Co-operation and integration among the Muslim countries was essential in all fields such as establishment of common Islamic market, free economic zones and signing of economic agreements in various fields.

Saudi Arabia’s first film festival began last month at the Jeddah Science and Technology Center. “The First Visual Show Festival”, had an audience of movie scriptwriters, directors, actors, film producers and others related to the movie industry. In his opening speech, the deputy manager of the Jeddah Science and Technology Center, Muhammad Salam stressed that all movies conform to Saudi traditions and culture. “The films are considerate of the values and traditions of Saudi Arabia. This is an impressively unique and rare collection of movies that we didn’t know about before and carries a meaningful cultural message different to the nonsense that we see on satellite TV,” he said. Organisers say that holding the festival each year would be a real test to see the outcome of the future of Saudi cinema.

The Minister of Education and deputy head of the King Abdul Aziz and His Companions Foundation for the Gifted, Dr. Abdullah Al-Obeid, announced the winners of the third annual Scientific Inventions Competition here recently. According to the Foundation, cash prizes amounting to Saudi Riyal 1 million — the largest of its kind in the Middle East was available to winners in this year’s competition. Sponsoring the contest and its prizes for the third consecutive year was the Abdul Latif Jameel Group. Men and women contestants from all over the Kingdom participated in this year’s contest. Dr. Khaled Al-Suleiman, secretary general of the Scientific Invention Reward, said the contest was open to anyone between the ages of six and 25 and who lived in the Kingdom, regardless of whether they were Saudis or non-Saudis. The secretary general explained that the Foundation and contest aimed at encouraging youngsters to think scientifically.

Bashir Maan, from the Muslim Council of Great Britan, complained of heavy-handed and humiliating searches by anti-terrorist police officers. Dozens of executives have said they are no longer prepared to fly from Scotland and are using Manchester instead. Strathclyde Police said it was looking at training to raise awareness of cultural and religious sensitivities. Mr Maan said: “I’d never experienced anything like that before in Scotland. “This was a show of sheer discrimination, victimisation of certain sections of the community in Scotland.” Glasgow businessman Mohammed Ashraf said it was “undignified” to be stopped and questioned.

The Malaysian government is drawing up a national policy to guide landscape development in line with the effort to shape Malaysia into the most beautiful garden nation by 2020, according to Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. He said it was the government’s desire for the National Landscape Policy to outline more rational approaches to maintain the beauty of nature. The Malaysia International Landscape and Garden Festival was launched at the Perdana Lake Gardens recently