Miscellany

The Director of the GCC Health Ministers Councils Executive Bureau Dr. Tawfiq bin Ahmed Khojah stressed that the number of female smokers in Saudi Arabia is estimated at over 600,000 and is expected to double in the coming years. Dr. Khojah stated that the number of people who die from passive smoking (inhaling the fumes emitted by smokers) numbers over 5,000 annually and that the GCC states have ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Dr. Khojah stated that the Council is keen to repudiate methods used by tobacco companies in marketing and advertising their products. He highlighted that the Saudi Ministry of Health continues to take legal action against tobacco companies and called upon the GCC state to tighten regulations regarding these companies.


Dr. Khojah explained that smoking has spread amongst Gulf societies in a dangerous manner and that many measures have been taken against tobacco companies that use various methods to penetrate the Gulf market and to attract the youth to its products. The 13th symposium on tobacco control will be held in April 2008 in Bahrain by the Executive Bureau and will look at the judicial and legal aspects in light of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, he said. A recent study by the Saudi Association for family health revealed that 22 per cent of secondary school students in kingdom are smokers. The report also states that smoking amongst lower to mid income families is on the rise due to increasing economic, social and media pressures. The Kingdom is one of the world’s largest importers of tobacco in all its forms.

Interfaith Coalition for Peace, New Delhi: The Delhi Consultation of South Asian Scholars and Activists on Peace Building in Islam and other Religions, January 5-6, India Islamic Cultural Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, scholars and activists from Iqbal International Leadership Institute, Lahore, International Association for Peace and Religious Freedom, Dhaka also participate. For details, contact: Dr. Syed Zafar Mahmood, President or Rev. Father Packiam Samuel, Secretary, Interfaith Coalition for Peace, A-92, C. Taimoor Nagar, New Delhi-110065, Ph. 011-26315196, email: icpindia2007@rediffmail.com




Subramanya Samaj Kalyan Seva Samiti, Tumkur: Mass marriage for Muslim couples, January 6, 2008, Former MLA Muddahunumegowda to preside, Tumkur, Bangalore.



Honoured: Delhi University professor Shah Abdus Salam has been awarded the 2007 Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture. The award which comprises a cash prize of $ 25,000 honours individuals, groups or institutions that have contributed in a significant way to the development, diffusion and promotion of Arab culture in the world, as well as to the preservation and revitalization of Arab heritage. Aladine Lolah, a professor at Aleppo University, Syria and an architect, is the other awardee.

Abdus Salam directs research on literature and Arab culture at the University of Delhi. His numerous publications are centered on the topics of Islamic culture and inter-faith dialogue. The award was presented by UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura, and Sharjah Culture and Information Department General Abdullah Al Owaisat a ceremony organized at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in the second week of December.


Initially awarded every two years, the prize is given away annually since 2003.



Dead: Mutiur Rahman, Rajya Sabha MP from Rashtriya Janata Dal died of a heart attack at his home town Motihari on December 18. He was 59. Rahman took keen interest in Hindi literature. He was twice elected to Bihar Assembly on Congress ticket. He was a prominent social worker of the region.

Noted historian Prof. Irfan Habib has been designated as Professor Emeritus by the Aligarh Muslim University. Prof. Habib who studied and later taught at the History Department of the University retired in 1991. In a letter issued by AMU vice chancellor Dr. P. K. Abdul Aziz said, Prof. Irfan Habib has strengthened the secular traditions of India.


A Leftist, Prof. Irfan Habib has authored several treatises on Indian history and is widely acknowledged as providing a firm bulwark for secular interpretation of medieval history of India through his writing. He became a member of the Royal Historical Society, London in 1998 and was conferred Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2005.

Gujarat elections results were an almost foregone conclusion with BJP led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi romping back to power, although with a reduced margin of 117 seats in the 182 member Assembly. Only five Muslim candidates could be elected to the Assembly and obviously all the five belong to the Indian National Congress (INC). These are

1. Abdulkarim Sabirbhai Khedawala from Jamalpur constitutency,

2. Shaikh Ghiyasuddin Habibuddin from Shahpur,

3. Shaikh Muhammad Faruq Hussainmiya from Kalupur,

4. Iqbal Patel from Vagra and

5. Pirjada Mahmadjavid Abdulmutlib from Wankaner.


Of the five constituencies, the former three lie within the municipal limit of Ahmedabad city.  Previous Assembly (2002-’07) had only two Muslim MLAs.

Erden Kok, a well known Turkish media personality, has been appointed new director general of the International Islamic News Agency (IINA), a media organ of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). He succeeds Abdul Wahab Kashif, who is leaving IINA at the end of his tenure as director general, spanning over a period of more than two decades. Mr. Kok took over on Dec. 17.


The Minister of Culture and Information Iyad Madani, who is also the chairman of IINA’s Executive Council, has taken the decision to appoint Erden Kok, formerly brand and marketing director of Turkey’s Cihan news agency, as the new chief of IINA as part of a plan to restructure the news agency. The ceremony was attended by the OIC Secretary General Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Dr. Abdullah Al Jasser, undersecretary at the Ministry of Culture and Information. In his speech, Prof. Ihsanoglu welcomed the new director general and wished him every success in his new position. He thanked Abdul Wahab Kashif for his contributions to IINA.

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Whitefield, Bangalore provide for free of cost heart related surgeries to those who cannot afford the cost. Contact or write to Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, EPIP Area, Whitefield, Bangalore 560 066, Karnataka, India. Ph: 080- 28411500. Fax 080-28411502. Employment related 080- 28411500 Ext. 415. Email General Queries: adminblr@sssihms.org.in

For many in Afghanistan, both old and young, the name of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first education minister of independent India, rings familiar. This was evident from a lecture organised here by the India Cultural Centre (ICC), Kabul, which saw scholars of repute like 83-year-old Afghan poet Maulvi Zeinollah Manalai who translated into Pashto language Maulana Azad’s Ghubar-e-Khatir, hold forth on the life and philosophy of Maulana Azad.


Manalai said, to the older generations of Afghans, Maulana Azad represented the sublime values of Muslim intellectual renaissance; he was a symbol of a progressive outlook and the freedom struggle against the British. For the young, Maulana Azad was founder-president of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).


Giving his inaugural remarks, Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood spoke about the life and achievements of Azad and his contribution to the education sector in India.


Nilab Rahimi, director, Public Libraries, Ministry of Information and Culture, and Golnoor Bahman, a well-known poet and writer, also spoke about the life and times of Maulana Azad.(IANS).