The Muslim World

Saudi Arabia will expand its artificial rain program to cover all parts of the country in order to meet growing need for water, according to Dr. Ahmed Ashour, the program’s general supervisor. The current experiment is carried out with the assistance of four planes that were used to locate cumulus clouds. The program to create artificial rains in the Asir region was successful as in the first year more than 60 percent of the rains received by the region were artificially induced. The process enables clouds to live longer, absorb more moisture and induce a significant increase in rainfall.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), has announced launching of a new publication, “The Journal.”. Maha Mostafa Akeel, Saudi journalist, has been appointed as its managing editor. She will be the first woman to join the OIC in over thirty years. “The Journal” is a quarterly magazine in English, which will cover major activities of the OIC as well as a wide variety of topics that are of concern for the Muslim Ummah and the member States.

Member countries of the Jeddah-based Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) are lagging behind other countries in science and technology. According to a recent report released by the OIC, which groups 57 Muslim countries, only three countries among the OIC members produce high technology products for export, while Turkey, Egypt and Uzbekistan have topped patents granted for technology. India surpasses all OIC members in science and technology. The report showed that Pakistan is advancing in nuclear energy technology, Malaysia in space science, Turkey in automobiles and Saudi Arabia in petrochemicals.


OIC Assistant Secretary General for Science and Technology. Dr. Ali Akbar Salehi said that most member States are allocating minimum funds for science and technology. “The average allocation for all member States collectively is 0.66 per cent which is far behind the world average rate of 36.2 per cent,” he said.

Nearly one in every four marriages in Saudi Arabia is ending in divorce. According to Sharq Al-Awsat daily, Saudi Office for Marriage Registration recorded 105,066 marriages in 2005. The office received 24000 petitions for divorces during the same period.

Prince Jalawi ibn Abdul Aziz ibn Musaed, deputy governor of the Eastern Province has urged the government employees in the province to strive for achieving the high standards of service set for the Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd Award for excellence.


The Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd Award is a prize instituted by Eastern Province Governor, Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd as an incentive to raise the performance level of government departments. According to Eissa Al-Ansari, secretary-general of the award, several seminars and workshops will be organised to familiarise government employees with the standards they ought to achieve in order that their departments qualify for the award.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) criticised the makers of the hit U.S. television show “24,” for fueling anti-Muslim prejudice with its latest storyline. “What the show makers describe as “Islamic terrorists” detonating a nuclear bomb near Los Angeles, risked stoking racial hatred. The raw emotional impact of fictional scenes that include widespread death and destruction in America may adversely affect the public’s attitude towards civil liberties, religious freedom and interfaith relations,” CAIR said in a statement, adding “the program’s repeated association of acts of terrorism with Islam will only serve to increase anti-Muslim prejudice in our society.” The new thriller of the award-winning series portrays a nuclear plot by Muslim extremists. The pulse-pounding drama begins with Muslim “terrorists” waging an 11-week campaign of suicide bombings across the United States. The series culminates with the detonation of a suitcase-sized nuclear bomb in Valencia, Calif., about 26 miles north of Los Angeles, leaving 12,000 people dead. “The overwhelming impression you get is fear and hatred for Muslims,” said CAIR spokeswoman, Rabiah Ahmed. “When people don’t have access at work or have neighbours who are Muslim, they rely on the images they see on television to shape their perceptions.” “They won’t be able to distinguish peaceful, law-abiding American Muslims and the minority who act against our faith and commit acts of terror,” she added.

Caught between an anti-Islam campaign showing no sign of dying down and deplorable living conditions, many imams are packing and leaving the Netherlands for more tolerant European societies, according to Mohammad Osalah, the deputy head of the Imams Society in the Netherlands. He said imams have a serious image problem in the Netherlands and the word conjures up the image of violence and terrorism due to media onslaughts and the inaction of Muslim leaders to defend the mosque custodians.


He complained that imams and mosques are always blamed for the actions of a handful of Muslims, citing the killing of Dutch filmmaker, Theo Van Gogh in 2004 for his anti-Islam film “Submission.” He insists that the government shares a large part of the blame for the imam stereotype. Muslims make up one million of Netherlands’s 16 million population. A number of imams have lost hope in getting permanent residence and returned home, while others switched careers to make ends meet. Osalah said the number of imams moving to other countries or abandoning their preaching career is on the rise, warning of a serious shortage in qualified imams.

The number of those becoming orphans and widows due to the ongoing series of violence, sectarian strife and terror attacks in Iraq is on the rise alarmingly every day. The condition of those fleeing violence from the war-torn country is miserable. The number of Iraqi refugees is all set to exceed the Palestinian refugees.


According to a recent report of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, one in eight of Iraqis have now left their homes, with up to 50,000 people leaving each month. The number of Iraqis living beyond the country’s borders as refugees, stands at 2 million and a further 1.7 million live within the borders as displaced people. But it warns that the number of internally displaced could reach 2.7 million by the end of the year.

The military-backed government in Thailand singled the possibility of introducing some Shariah provisions in its troubled Muslim-populated south and denied any link between the unrest and so-called international terrorism. “My government will improve the justice system to make the system more reliable, and we are considering bringing in parts of Sharia law,” said Premier Surayud Chulanont. He asserted that the government wanted the justice system in the three provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani to be more in line with Shariah. The three were an independent Muslim sultanates until annexed officially a century ago. They are home to 1.8 million or 80 percent of the populace. Muslims make up around five percent of the population in Thailand.

Karachi will host the fifth Iranian trade exhibition in the first week of February. The Iranian trade exhibition is to be organised by Iran Trade Development Organization and Mashhad International Exhibitions Company. Iranian made commodities and goods such as paint, resin, glue, foodstuff, construction materials, technical and engineering equipment, polymer, rubber and automobiles industries, packaging machinery, chemical industries and oil derivatives, steel, and petrochemical materials will be displayed at the exhibition.

Over 100 Spinner dolphins have been saved from near death at the Shati Al Qurum beach. The stranded dolphins were first spotted by Omar Sharif, an employee of a local recreational facility near the Muscat Intercontinental Hotel shoreline, who sounded the alarm. All lifeguards at the hotel were called, and together with the help of volunteers, succeeded in pushing back the dolphins into safer waters.

The London prime broking arm of French bank, Societe Generale developed systems to replicate the effects of selling shares without breaking Islamic law. The funds, seeded with more than $60 million by a big Middle Eastern bank were created in the hope that wealthy investors keen to follow Islamic law will pour money into the structures. Three funds have been seeded with a total of $US60million ($76 million) by a large Middle Eastern bank, and Old Mutual Asset Management is about to launch a fourth.

Indonesia’s exports of completely built-up cars in 2006 jumped by 70 percent to 30,000 units from 17,000 units in 2005, said, Director General for Telematics and Transportation Equipment Industries, Budi Darmadi. The increase in the car exports was a consequence of the drastic drop in the domestic market by about 40.9 percent as the result of the fuel oil price hike in October 2005. Darmadi said that Indonesia’s exports would also increase because exporters had won new markets particularly in African and Latin American countries. Toyota Innova, Avanza, Fortuner and Suzuki APV cars are among Indonesia’s primary export cars.

Malaysia is on the way to become the world’s Islamic finance centre, according to finance minister, Nor Mohamed Yakcop. Malaysia devised a long-term scheme to develop new investment plans to attract global Islamic funds in a bid to boost the country’s role as an Islamic hub in the international financial community. Islamic banking is flourishing worldwide, even in Western countries, as banks are tapping into the booming Islamic finance market.