THE MUSLIM WORLD

Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and ruler of Sharjah, opened the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization on 5th June 2008.The museum is the first of its kind in the UAE. It contains more than 5,000 precious Islamic artifacts representing the art and science of the great Muslim scientists and artists. Some of the objects are shown to the public for the very first time. The museums collection displays treasures from the advent of Islam until the present day.

Aisha Rashed Deemas, Curator of Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization, explained that the site of the museum is the well known Souq Al Majarrah, the first market of its kind in the Gulf area with architecture that has Islamic, Arabic and traditional design elements and also a central dome with an intricate mosaic depicting the night sky and the astrological star signs. She said that the Souq, now converted into the museum, will be an advanced cultural centre containing over 5000 unique Islamic artifacts from all over the world and arranged into seven spacious galleries. Deemas added that a gallery is dedicated to Islamic faith and contains prominent collections including the Quran, Islamic calligraphies, and various architectural patterns. It also displays some interesting historic photographs of pilgrimages to Makkah.

More than 70 years after the Spanish civil war, a new film is laying bare the discriminatory treatment of thousands of Moroccan fighters following the conflict. Moroccan fighters were neglected, just because they were Muslims, producer Dris Deiback has said. Other foreign fighters who took part in the war were rewarded and naturalized. Deibacks film, Los Perdedores, meaning The Losers, shows the neglect Moroccan fighters were subjected to following the war. The film shows important sides of the Muslims participation in the Spanish civil war. The war started on July 17, 1936, after an attempted coup by the army against the government of the Second Spanish Republic. The conflict pitted supporters of the Republic, backed by the Soviet Union and Mexico, against the nationalists, supported by the major European powers. More than 150,000 Moroccans were forced to join the war on the side of the nationalists. Historians usually focus on what they believe are atrocities committed by Moroccan fighters, notes Deiback. But they intentionally ignore that thousands of Moroccan Muslim children were forced to take part in the war.

A treasure of ancient relics was recently unearthed during the ongoing excavation work in the northern part of the Grand Mosque. The relics included a package of architectural materials of great archaeological value. In addition several copies of the Quran, educational posters and maps were also discovered. Dr. Ali AlGhuban, Deputy Secretary General of Antiquities and Museums at the General Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, said a scientific committee of researchers and archaeologists has been formed to study the relics. He said the committee has moved all the 273 relics to the Archaeological Museum in Makkah. Dr. AlGhuban said the relics included doors of different shapes and sizes decorated with flowers and architectural Islamic designs. They will be put on public display after a proper study is conducted, he said.

Madinah Governor Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Majed opened an international knowledge forum here last month and emphasized Saudi Arabias efforts to further enhance its investment climate and create more educational and training opportunities to its citizens. Addressing the opening session, Amr AlDabbagh, governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), stressed his organisations strategy to attract international investment to knowledgebased industries at Madinahs Knowledge Economic City (KEC). KEC also aims at attracting leading scientific institutions and Muslim scientists and intellectuals from different parts of the world to Madinah, he said. Prominent scientists from across the world including Dr. Afzal Hossain and Stein Sture from the United States, Professor Sar Sardy from Indonesia, Dr. Musa M. Nordin from Malaysia and Dr. Anis Ahmed from Pakistan attended the conference, entitled Noor (Light).

Bahrain has appointed a Jewish woman as an ambassador, believed to be the Arab worlds first Jewish envoy. The selection of Houda Nonoo was made by decree on and reported by local media in the Gulf Arab kingdom. The decree, published by the official Bahraini News Agency, did not state which nation Nonoo would be appointed to, but media reports have said that the US is her likely destination. Nonoo, 43, said she would undertake the role first of all as a Bahraini and that she was not chosen because of her religion. Nonoo, a businesswoman and mother of two children, has served as a legislator in Bahrains 40member Shura Council for three years. She is Bahrains third woman ambassador the first being appointed to France in 2000 and the second to China. About 40 Jews live in Bahrain, where there is one synagogue. The authorities in Bahrain are currently planning to grant full citizenship rights to Jewish returnees, according to local reports.

Libyas President Col. Gadaffi has strongly condemned US Democratic Party Presidential candidate Barack Obamas reported promise of providing Israel a whopping 30 billion dollars over the next ten years if he is elected, stressing that this shows his animosity for the Arabs. Gadaffi said that this money would be used for further strengthening the Israeli armed forces so as to further unleash oppression against the Palestinian people. He said that Obamas statement showed that he cared little for puppet proUS Arab regimes and that it appears that US policy in West Asia will not substantially change in favour of the Palestinians even if Obama is elected. He accused Obama of supporting Israeli expansionist designs in the region and said his statement had serious negative implications for prospects for peace and stability in West Asia. Col. Gadaffi stressed that there was no enmity between Arabs and Westerners, but that the US government was deliberately backing Israeli oppression.

Al Nimr Group for Gold and Jewellery has come up with the worlds costliest copy of the holy Quran. The 2kg copy of the Quran worth SR2.5 million is plated with pure gold and is studded with precious stones. The Quran pages are golden and the copy has interpretation of the meanings of the verses in other languages and a full, according to AlRiyadh Arabic daily. Mustafa Al Nimr, marketing manager of Ghassan AlNimr for Gold and Jewelry, said 18 carat gold has been used and the Quran copy is studded with rarest diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and turquoises. We have used worlds best quality paper with gilded edges, AlNimr added.

Malaysia has plans to set up a special institute at the University of Prince Songkhla in Southern Thailand, aimed at developing professionalism among Islamic education teachers. Malaysias Education Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the proposal, to be implemented under a fiveyear MalaysiaThailand education cooperation action plan, would help coordinate teachers training program and Islamic education. This was to ensure both aspects were relevant to the current challenges and dispel the notions linking Islam to terrorism, he said. We have already started the program by accepting over 100 teachers from southern Thailand to visit Malaysia. Some 60 students are also pursuing studies in Kajang and Seremban, he said.

In a rare gesture of unity and amity with their brothers in Islam, a delegation of Sunnis performed Friday prayers recently, at one of the Shiite Mosques in the eastern city of Qatif, the only part of Saudi Arabia where Shiites are a majority. Observers see it as an unprecedented move to soothe the feelings of alienation among the Shiite minority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The delegation, headed by Shaikh Mukhlef Bin Daham Al Shamri, were attentive to the Friday sermon delivered by the wellknown Shiite Shaikh Hassan Al Safar, in which the preacher underscored the significance of strengthening Islamic and national unity and closing ranks among followers of Islam. This is part of our duty to promote virtue and prevent vice, he noted. Shaikh Al Shamri is one of the Shaikhs of Shamr tribe, which spreads over a vast area in various regions of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. During the talks with the Shiite community, Shaikh Al Shamri proposed that a similar delegation of Shiites would come over to one of the Sunni mosques in Al Khobar. This move was regarded as a bold initiative from the part of the majority Sunnis to bury the hatchet and show their reciprocal respect to fellow members of the community.

The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged the business community in OIC member states to embrace a more substantial role to contribute to the prosperity and development of the Muslim Ummah. The Secretary Generals call was made during a speech he delivered at the opening session of the Business Forum last fortnight. Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni opened the twoday forum at the Imperial Royale Hotel. The Secretary General highlighted the critical resources the African continent possesses, notably its natural resources, fertile land, abundance of water and mineral resources. He shed light on a number of key resources, namely, millions of hectares of reclaimed land, the Nile, the Congo and the River Niger. He expressed his confidence that the private sector, through the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), could deploy its efforts to pump more investment in a number of OIC countries.

Swiss MP and President of the SwissPalestinian Association, Daniel Oscar has said that Israels blockade of the Gaza Strip and its drive against the Palestinians are condemnable and it is shameful that European countries are silent about this. He attributed this to the influence of proIsraeli groups in Europe. Because of the lack of pressure from the European Union on Israel, the blockade of Gaza is getting further prolonged, he opined.

On Fridays. 200 Muslims squeeze into a converted North Spokane home to pray. It also serves as a place for young Muslims to attend Sunday school. But soon that will change.
A parcel of land, off Interstate 90 in the Spokane Valley is home to Spokanes first Mosque. This is what the Spokane Islamic Center is trying to accomplish. Their new facility is a 600,000 project complete with a library, kitchen, men and womens prayer areas, and a childrens room. "It is unusual for a city this size not to have a Mosque and so heres the first one, and so were very excited about it," said Saleh Elgadi, with the Spokane Islamic Center Building Committee.

The major ethnic group of Saharan nomads remains relatively unknown in the West. For the first time, Bedouin musicians from the Sinai Peninsula are taking their music out across the Egyptian borders. They come from very different parts of Sinai. Some are from the coastal town of ElArish, the others from the settlement of Abo El Hossain. They were brought together by Egyptian Zakaria Ibrahim who with his El Mastaba organisation is involved in working for the preservation of many of the threatened traditions in the area between Sinai and Sudan. Back home, these musicians play at weddings and other special occasions, but I formed the band to make Bedouin culture internationally known, says Ibrahim. I see Egyptian music becoming more and more westernised and I would like to preserve a broad spectrum of our heritage.

The jerry cans were left behind, lying in the dunes, after the end of the Israeli occupation. We discovered that each one had a different tone, depending on age, size and dents put together with the old ammunition boxes they create ea great sound

Our songs are all traditional. We are happiest when we are living close to the sand. The Quran after all, says that Adam was created from sand. Even though there are lots of modern influences in our lives stone buildings, refrigerators, we still prefer cooking over an open fire than going to a restaurant, says Mehdat El Issawy, creative leader of the group.

The Qatar Consultative Council recently approved the draft of a new law seeking to protect the conditions of foreign female domestic workers. The 26-point draft will soon be presented to the Amir of Qatar for his approval. The Consultative Council has the status of Parliament, although it cannot make laws on its own. Scores of women from Asian countries, particularly Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, work as maids in Qatar and other Gulf countries, and human rights organisations have repeatedly pointed out that many of them are heavily exploited by their employers.  According to the draft law, foreign maids will be able to place their complaints before a new department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare; employers will have to bear the costs of the maids’ visa fees and all other expenses and will not be able to deduct these from their salaries; maids will be entitled to three weeks’ annual holiday and one unpaid holiday every week; and maids’ salaries will have to be paid by the third of every month. (Source: The Daily Salar)

Four major US, British and French oil companies (ExxonMobil, Shell, British Petroleum and Total) are getting their hands on the petroleum reserves of Iraq for the first time in 36 years, based on nobid contracts. These deals reached with the USbacked regime in Baghdad have placed the fiveyearold US war of aggression in the clearest possible perspective. The nobid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed, over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. Such contracts cannot be explained outside of their being negotiated at the point of a gun. A total of 46 companies, including Lukoil of Russia, China National, Indias major oil company and others had memorandums of understanding with the Iraqi Oil Ministry, yet none of them was allowed to bid for contracts. Instead, the deals are being handed over without any competition to ExxonMobil, Shell, Total and British Petroleum. The new contracts have everything to do with the role played by these companies decades ago and their determination to wrest back the control they exercised before Iraq nationalized its oil industry and ejected the US and British oil giants in 1972, a move that ushered in a wave of nationalizations throughout the oilproducing countries. Before then, the Iraq Petroleum Company was dominated by the US and British companies, which controlled threequarters of the countrys oil production. The US government has worked over decades to reimpose American domination over Iraq, which has the second largest proven oil reserves115 billion barrelsand the largest unexplored reserves of any country in the world.

The UAE governments decision to allow Israeli billionaire and diamond magnate, Lev Leviev, notorious for funding Jewish settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian lands, to open two new jewellery stores in Dubai has shocked proPalestine advocates. "We want people to put pressure on Lev Leviev to stop funding settlement building in the Palestinian lands," said Issa Ayoub, spokesman for the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East.

Lev Leviev Diamonds has won approval from the government of Dubai to open two jewellery stores this year. One of the stores will in the Burj Dubai Mall, the worlds biggest mall, under the worlds tallest building. The other will be located in the lobby of the new Atlantis hotel resort on the Jumeirah Palm Island, currently scheduled to open in September 2008.

Leviev, ranked 210 among the worlds richest people, is a major financer of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian lands. His company Danya Cebus, a subsidiary of AfricaIsrael, subcontracted the building of Mattityahu East settlement on the land of the Palestinian village of Bilin. It is also built housing units in Har Homa and Maale Adumim settlements, cutting the holy city of AlQuds (occupied East Jerusalem) from the West Bank. The Israeli billionaire is also a major contributor to the Land Redemption Fund, a Jewish group accused of intimidation and strongarms tactics to secure Palestinian lands for settlement construction.

Abdullah AbuRahma from the Palestinian village of Bilin said allowing the Israeli billionaire to open stores in Dubai, a worlds hub of Jewellery trading, would mean more support to the Jewish settlements. "Levievs companies are destroying the olive groves and farms that have sustained our villages for centuries, and are profiting from human rights abuses," he said. "We want all people and governments to boycott this billionaire."

Walking up the stage to receive a prestigious academic excellence award from the US ambassador in Islamabad, Samad Khurram could not brush aside the image of army soldiers and civilians killed in a US strike a few days ago.

He shocked the audience of a special ceremony organized by Roots College International recently, refusing to receive a Harvard scholarship award presented to him by Ambassador Anne W. Patterson. Instead of shaking hand with Patterson and accepting his award, Khurram rejected the scholarship in protest at a US strike that killed scores of compatriots, soldiers and civilians, last month. He said he was also protesting Washingtons unwavering support to the policies of embattled President Pervez Musharraf. I refuse to accept this award in protest against the recent US strike on the tribal areas, and its support to unconstitutional acts of Pervez Musharraf, he told the stunned crowd. Khurrams words put Ambassador Patterson in an embarrassing situation that only got worse after the entire hall resounded with thunderous clapping for the student.

Pakistan becomes the first nation in South Asia to adopt daylight saving time, pushing clocks forward by one hour. The threemonth experiment is aimed, as elsewhere, at cutting energy costs by taking advantage of long summer days. Pakistan is now half an hour ahead of India, whose time remains unchanged. By shifting ahead half an hour, the country could shave at least 0.3 off its annual electricity consumption, a saving of 250 million. Other potential benefits include fewer car accidents and less street crime.

A Muslim asylum seeker in Ireland has been denied a welldeserved award for his volunteer work after asking organisers not to be asked to shake hand with the lady presenting the award. The judges had decided that someone else should get the award, said Benedicta Attoh, a member of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism. Alinoor Ahmed Sheikh, a Somali Muslim based in an asylum hostel in Tralee, was to receive an award for his efforts to raise funds for Amnesty International.

Ahead of the ceremony, he asked the Africa Center in Dublin, the organisers, not to be asked to shake the female presenters hand. Sheikh said he was initially assured by organisers that his request not to shake Attohs hand would be accommodated because it was based on his religious beliefs. However, five minutes before the prize announcement, his name was crossed out and the prize went to an absent volunteer. I dont think I would have presented his prize if he wouldnt shake my hand because Im a woman, said Attoh, chairwoman of the Africa Centres board.