THE MUSLIM WORLD

Islamic art from around the world will be exhibited in Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art in an event organized by Utah Mormons to celebrate the Islamic culture and show how religious beliefs can parallel each other.
“It was amazing how many times people found the same values found in the Mormon traditions and culture also in (Islamic culture),” Sabiha Al Khemir, the project’s director, told Desert News newspaper.
“We aspire to similar things. Many times, my Mormon colleagues are quoting things to me directly from Mormon scripture that directly correspond with what these pieces are about.”
Planned since 2008, the project began when Al Khemir, a Tunisian native and world-renowned writer, artist and expert in Islamic art, had the idea to bring a collaborative exhibition to the university
The exhibit, which will feature more than 250 pieces from nine countries, will take up the main floor of BYU’s Museum of Art. The exhibit will open on Feb. 24, 2012, and run through Sept. 29, 2012.
Later on, it will move to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Newark Museum in Newark, N.J., and the Portland Museum in Portland, Ore.
Guiding visitors step-by-step through the exhibit, the progression will help visitors appreciate and understand Islamic culture by starting with simpler pieces and ending with the more complex.
“The mentality is to be in the state to learn but to also be in a state to unlearn,” Al Khemir said.
“When it comes to Islamic culture, we have a great deal to unlearn and forget and to just see what is.”
Like any other branch of Christianity, Mormonism is centered on Jesus Christ, but has substantial differences in belief to the Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches.
There are some 5.8 million Mormons in the US today, part of over 12 million members world-wide.
The United States is home to some six to seven million Muslims.

Sahar Al-Shamrani from the Eastern Province is preparing to be the first Saudi woman to travel to the South Pole. “The objective of this trip is to contribute in projects to save planet Earth,” she said. Scientists and environment experts, including British scientist, Robert Swan, will accompany Al-Shamrani. She said, she was prompted to take the risk by the words of King Abdullah who has always encouraged Saudi women to undertake their role in society. A woman from the United Arab Emirates, who had taken the trip before, also encouraged her. “I am very concerned with environmental issues and the ecological changes, which started to have their impact on Mother Earth,” she said. “I shall be proud to be the first Saudi woman to hoist the Saudi flag on Antarctica. I will record my entire experience, including the things we see and the troubles we go through,” she said.
Al-Shamrani said the 17-day adventure would start from Dubai, then Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires. From Argentine, she would take a boat to the South Pole.

Israel closed a footbridge it deemed unsafe at Jerusalem’s holiest and most volatile religious site after fears that demolition of the structure, used mainly by non-Muslim tourists, could spark Arab anger. The wooden ramp was erected by Israeli authorities as a stop-gap, after a snowstorm and earthquake in 2004 damaged a stone bridge leading up from Western Wall to the sacred compound where the Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock mosques stand. Any construction at the site can be politically explosive. The footbridge was to have been torn down last month, but the demolition was postponed on the advice of Israeli diplomats and security officials. Israel would consult with the king of Jordan, the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, on the future of the bridge.