The Muslim World

Unique historical treasures worth tens of millions of pounds were gathering dust in store rooms in Jakarta after being impounded by police. The 2,50,000 pieces of Chinese ceramics, Arabic and Persian glassware were recovered from a 1,000-year-old wreck in the Java Sea off Indonesia. Found with them were 13,000 Indian pearls, jewellery, about 1,000 rubies and sapphires and several gold pieces. They were salvaged from a ship that could rewrite the history of Islam in the world’s most populous Muslim country. But police tape blocks access to a riding centre in Pamulang, Jakarta, where the treasure was being kept, and the French and German chief divers have spent a month in jail. The 18-month joint European and Indonesian operation on the vessel, 90 miles off the port of Cirebon, included an archaeological survey, with permits from all relevant ministries, and an agreement to share the proceeds 50-50 with the authorities. But after a rival salvage company filed a complaint that the team was not properly licensed the police stepped in, and sealed everything.

Over 3,731 prison inmates including men and women in Saudi Arabia took the high school equivalency examinations last month. The inmates who pass the exams will get their educational degrees. “All preparations were made for 2,731 prisoners, including men and women of various levels under the general education, illiteracy eradication and adult education departments, to take their examinations,” said Maj. Gen. Ali ibn Hussein Al-Harithy, director general of prisons. Abdul Aziz ibn Dubyan, director of the boys education in Riyadh, said the department was motivated by the desire to help those who want to continue their formal studies, but are hampered by their present constraints from freely attending schools.

She has not seen her husband for two months, because he lives hundreds of miles away with his first wife, but Sitoresmi Trabuningrat is happy. A princess of the royal house of Yogyakarta, formerly an actress and now a businesswoman, she epitomises a new openness about polygamy in Indonesia. Where once it was a taboo among the elite, more and more polygamous families are revealing themselves and the topic has become a major talking point with the release of a film, Sharing A Husband. Sitoresmi, 56, said her musician husband’s other life in Jakarta, far from her home in the Javanese city of Yogyakarta, was “not a problem”. “If I just call or send a text message everything is OK,” she said.


“I feel like I need the teamwork,” she said. “I have more freedom and independence. When I concentrated on my career I was helped by my husband’s other wives with my obligations in the family. “If polygamy is conducted properly there’s a pride in doing it, that we can share with other women. Jealousy is very human but the only problem is how to manage it.” A devout Muslim, she said that her religious teaching “really educates me to accept whatever happens in my life”.

Former Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, Yousuf Bhailock, believes that he was misled into successfully bidding for a Kiswah from the Ka’bah in Makkah, on sale at Bonham’s Auction House in London recently. Bhailock told The Muslim News that he purchased the Kiswah for £240,000 on “good faith” that it had adorned the Ka’bah, but doubts about the authenticity were raised in the light of so many Kiswahs appearing at other auction houses in London. In view of this, he arranged for Professor Huyla Tezcan, the curator of the Textile Department at Topkapi Palace Museum to fly to London from Turkey to verify its authenticity before paying. “The world’s leading expert confirmed that the Kiswah was a contemporary copy,” the former MCB Secretary General said. “It is not an original piece, it is a copy which has not been on the holy Ka’bah,” he said. Bhailock is also adamant that as far as he is concerned the issue is closed, and is prepared to defend his refusal to pay for the Kiswah if the matter is taken to court.

A tuna fish caught in the Indian Ocean last month has excited Kenyan Muslims who are flocking here by the hundreds to see a Qur’anic verse apparently embedded in its scales. Dubbed the “wonder fish” by locals in this port city, the 2,5kg tuna has attracted so much attention that it has been placed in the custody of the National Fisheries Department for safekeeping, officials said. The otherwise ordinary fish caught the attention of a fishmonger, Omar Mohammed Awadh, who pulled it out of a catch when he noticed what seemed to be Arabic writing among the scales near its tail. Arabic scholars examined the fish at Awadh’s shop and determined that the writing was a Qur’anic verse meaning “God is the greatest of all providers”, said Hassan Mohamed Hassan, an education officer with the National Museums of Kenya in Mombasa. “This has been confirmed as a verse from the holy Qur’an,” said Sheikh Mombasa Dor, the secretary-general of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya. “It is so clearly spelt,” he said, “that we believe Allah is sending a message to mankind.”

The stock market crash, which affected more than 3.5 million middle income investors, has delayed the marriages of many people this summer in Saudi Arabia. Every summer, Saudis get married, but this year, the number is expected to drop by more than 50 per cent. Fahd Al-Harbi, a wedding hall owner, said that many people who had made reservations cancelled them after the crash. Saleh Al-Muntasheri postponed his wedding which was scheduled for the summer because of the crash. He said that he had lost SR120,000. Ahmad Ali is another Saudi who lost money in the crash. He said he had lost SR67,000 which had taken him more than five years to save. He said he had been forced to cancel his wedding because he could not afford it and that he would not borrow the money.

The Muslim society in Greece made an official request to the authorities in Athens to be allowed to have a mosque. Representatives from the Union of Muslims in Greece met with a government official at the Greek Ministry of Education and Religion and officially requested a mosque to start functioning in Athens. Representatives of the Muslim community have already collected the necessary signatures of those who want to have a mosque in which to profess the Islamic belief, as the mosque would be under the state’s control.

The decision to close a high school pool to give three Muslim girls a private swimming class is stoking debate over the place of faith in Quebec’s public institutions. The most recent chapter in the argument centres on a request from three Muslim students at Antoine-Brossard high school in the South Shore suburb of Brossard, who asked to be excused from swimming class because their religion rejects sharing a pool with men. So last month, the pool was closed to all other students and tables were placed in front of the windows so the three girls would be shielded from view. A female teacher administered the test, aided by another female school employee.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has told newspaper editors to stop publishing pictures of women as they could lead young men astray. After a meeting with editors recently, the King was reported in the Saudi media as saying that “one needs to think if he would want his daughter, sister or wife to appear like that. Of course, no one would”. Newspapers have recently broken with tradition and published pictures of women with hair covered, but faces showing. They had also begun to debate women’s issues, such as being forbidden to drive and vote. “Young people are driven by emotion and the spirit, but the spirit can go astray. So I ask you to go easy on these things,” the King also reportedly said. He also called on newspapers to stop publishing stories that portray the country in a negative light.

The tiny Gulf state of Qatar, famed mainly for having the Arab world’s largest reserves of natural gas, added another record to its name recently — one of the world’s most expensive telephone numbers.


At a charity event in Doha, a Qatari bidder paid $2.75 million for the mobile phone number 666-6666. Eight people took part in the auction, organised by Qatar Telecom to help raise funds for charity, paying 3,000 Qatari riyals ($824.60) per ticket. Funds from the ticket sales were given to a local charity, while the 10 million riyals from the sale of the number will be used to expand medical services.

Representatives of the three monotheist religions in Switzerland have established a Council on May 15, to promote inter-faith tolerance and speak with one voice with the government and political parties. “The Council of Religions will work to boost confidence among the followers of the three religions,” said Thomas Wipf, the president of the nascent body. “Stereotypes and misconceptions can only be corrected through dialogue,” added Wipf, also president of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (SEK). Hisam Maizar, chairman of the newly formed Federation of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland (FIDS) and one of the two Muslim representatives in the council, agreed. Alfred Donath, president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Comm-unities, will represent the Jews. Bishop Kurt Koch is the representative of the Roman Catholics.

The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore launched last month has organised a program to involve world Muslim scholars and leaders in discussing global challenges and promoting ties between Singapore and the Muslim world.


The Distinguished Visitors Program (DVP) will invite eminent Muslim statesmen, leaders and thinkers of international standing to Singapore. The first DVP guest is Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi. The Grand Imam is scheduled to deliver a lecture titled, “Islam And Its Place In The Modern World.”