The Muslim World

The government’s restrictions on entry visa for overseas students are deterring many law-abiding foreign students who contribute billions of pounds to the British economy, academics and education experts are warning. “Students are apparently treated with great suspicion by most British authorities, when 99.9% are absolutely legitimate,” Professor David Weir of Liverpool Hope University’s business school told The Guardian. “It’s enormously difficult to get visas even for bona fide courses.”

The government introduced in March, 2009 a new points-based immigration system for overseas students coming from outside the European Union.

Some of the laws are extremely complicated that many students fail to abide by.

Eyeing support for Islamic economies, a group of Muslim scholars are planning a union for Islamic companies to help boost transactions and help the poor in the Muslim world. “We want a strong Islamic alliance capable of competing with foreign goods,” says prominent scholar Wagdi Ghoneim. “It aims to provide support for sales of member companies against foreign products.” Ghoneim said the planned union will market products of its members. “It will also give these companies the chance to enhance the quality of their products by benefiting from the researches conducted at the union’s research center.” Headquartered in Belgium, the union is expected to be announced soon. Members will have to pay 2 percent of their monthly sales or profits to the union. “In return, the members will enjoy several privileges,” he said. “Members will gain the union’s badge to guarantee them protection against competition of foreign products.”

Israel’s systematic policies of neglect and discrimination against the Arab Palestinian inhabitants of Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) have led to a social and economic collapse in the holy city, with children being the hardest hit.

“66.8% of Palestinian families in Jerusalem (as opposed to 23.3% of the city’s Jewish families) live below the poverty line,” concluded the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). “A large majority of East Jerusalem residents do not receive, and cannot afford to buy, the most basic services.” The aged, the disabled, and children are the most affected, says the ACRI, Israel’s oldest and largest human rights organization.

“74% of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem are beneath the poverty line, as opposed to 47.7% of the city’s Jewish children,” reads the report.

“Over 94,000 children in East Jerusalem live in a perpetual state of poverty.”

The ACRI asserted that the chronic state of poverty has had serious social ramifications, including a decline in the functioning of children, reflected in high rates of school dropout and early entrance into the job market; crime; drug use; and health and nutritional problems.

Copenhagen municipality is planning to introduce Arabic classes in all the capital’s schools to boost the integration of Arab immigrants and help promote trade with Arab countries.

“It is very important that we give students a choice of languages that includes Arabic,” Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard, the city’s vice-mayor in charge of youth policy, told Agence France Presse (AFP). Kjeldgaard said they plan to introduce Arabic as a second language along with English, French and German in all schools in the capital. All four languages would be offered as options for the entrance exams that pupils have to sit at 15 to get into high school. The vice-mayor said the municipality has already submitted a proposal in this regard to the Ministry of Education, seeking its approval.
Schools in Denmark are run by municipalities according to the specifications of the Ministry of Education. Municipalities have the right to propose changes in education methods of curricula. Kjeldgaard said if the ministry approves their plan, Arabic classes will be available when students return to school in August after their summer holidays.

Sara, a 32-year-old mother of three children, in Riyadh has been trying to secure a divorce from her husband.

“My case has been in the court for three months,” she said. “My husband is demanding SR50, 000 while all I received from him as a dowry was SR30, 000.”

Sara is one of many Saudi women seeking separation through khula, a form of divorce in Shariah where the woman secures her divorce through financial compensation to the husband that begins with a reimbursement of the dowry but often includes what the husband sees as his additional expenses for the marriage.

Sara’s brothers offered to help out with the cash, “but it is not fair, they all have families and responsibilities,” she said.

“Some men use the khula system to make money on account of women who are willing to pay off their husbands in order to end a troubled marriage,” said Noha, a 28-year-old mother of a four-year-old.

Noha is lucky. Her husband (who is also her cousin) agreed to reimbursement of half of the dowry after family members intervened “to put reason into his mind that I have given him five of my best years,” she said.

Saudi Lawyers’ Committee Deputy Director Hadi Al-Yami, who is also a member of the governmental Human Rights Commission, pointed out that current reforms taking place in the judicial system — one of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosque King Abdullah’s major reform initiatives — will hopefully improve the situation of women caught in the personal judgments and rulings.

The lack of a standard methodology when dealing with divorce cases and other family matters is a point of contention, Al-Yami added.

“The khula system needs to be standardized like many other judicial regulations,” he said adding that the family courts being established will set standards that will apply to all courts and hopefully reel in the personal decisions of individual judges.

Dima, a 43-year-old wealthy Saudi woman who has spent 19 months in the current court system trying to secure a khula divorce from her husband, is a case study in how the system can favor the husband over the wife.

“I am losing the best years of my life in the unjust judicial system,” she said. “The judge had ruled in my favor three times, but my husband has been able to challenge these rulings one way or another.”

Dima says that her husband had been asking for financial compensation of over SR600, 000, calculating all the expenses he had put in his own home where his three children live.

“The house is mine,” she said. “He has been living in it for 15 years, yet he is asking me to pay off the cost of an extension he built for himself, and much more. What about the 15 years of my life I have lost? What are they worth? How could the judge participate in extending my agony? Is this justice?”

Al-Yami says that under Shariah a husband is entitled to “‘some’ of his dowry, and not all, and definitely not additional compensation. Shariah is clear and obvious in such matters, and it urges us to treat women in a fine and just way.”

Furthermore, he added that khula compensation is dictated by various factors, including number of years of marriage, number of children and the potential negative impact the continuation of the marriage would have on the wife.

Referring to the criticism Saudi Arabia has been facing after the Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last month regarding women and children’s status, Al-Yami points out that human rights is a basic Islamic principle.

In February, the Kingdom faced criticism during an active discussion of the UPR for women’s status, application of death penalty, physical punishments and violation of labor rights in the Kingdom. All member states of the United Nations undergo this review process.

(Arab News)

Corazon Yap-Bahjin, the first Muslim Filipina to be appointed ambassador, was confirmed as her country’s head of diplomatic mission in Bahrain after her nomination breezed through the Commission on Appointments in Manila. She will succeed former ambassador Eduardo Pablo M. Maglaya, who held the post from May 2003 until March 2009.

Bahjin’s confirmation makes her the fourth woman to lead a diplomatic mission in Bahrain. Turkey’s Hilal Baskal made history twice in May 2001 by becoming the first woman ambassador in Bahrain and the first Turkish woman appointed as a diplomatic representative to an Arab country.

She was followed in July 2001 by France’s Anita Limido, the first Western female ambassador in Manama, who was replaced, three years later, by another woman, Malika Berak. Bahjin was born to a small and frugal family in Jolo and graduated cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas in 1967, majoring in English and theology. She obtained her Master of Arts from the University of the Philippines in 1974. After a short career in education, she became acting director of the Cultural Division of the Office of Islamic Affairs (now the Office on Muslim Affairs) in 1982 and had her first assignment abroad as vice consul in Jeddah in 1986. She went back to Manila in 1998 and in 1990 she served as second secretary and consul in Amman. Around 45,000 Filipinos work in Bahrain out of a total expatriate population of 570,000 people.

The Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama conducted the sixth inter faith dialogue programme 2009 from May 13 to 26th, 2009 in Karnataka. The participants had interactive sessions in different religions including Islam and also visited historical sites like Shravanabelagola, Mysore and Bylakuppe. Thupten Tsewang, pragramme Manager co-ordinated the dialogue programme.

Hawaii is planning to celebrate “Islam Day” over the objections of state lawmakers who associate extremist Muslims with terrorism.

The resolution to proclaim Sept. 24, 2009, as Islam Day passed the Senate today on a 22-3 vote. As more than 100 Christians gathered in the Senate to oppose same-sex civil unions cheered, the Senate’s two Republicans argued that members of all religions shouldn’t forget the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Democrats countered that the diversity and positive contributions of the Islamic world should be honored. The resolution does not call for any spending or organized celebration of Islam Day. America has protected the Israeli nuke program for 40 years. The origins of the U.S. shield of Israel’s nuclear program date to a 1969 summit between President Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, documents released in the past few years show. There is no one piece of paper that actually describes the accord. However, the closest acknowledgment of the deal came in 2007, when the Nixon Library declassified many of the papers of former National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. A July 7, 1969, memorandum to Mr. Nixon titled, “Israeli Nuclear Program,” said that by the end of 1970, Israel would likely have 24 to 30 French surface-to-surface missiles, 10 of which would have nuclear warheads. Mr. Kissinger, who later became secretary of state, wrote that ideally, the U.S. would prefer Israel to have no nuclear weapons, but that was not attainable. He added that “public knowledge is almost as dangerous as possession itself,” arguing that an Israeli announcement of its arsenal or a nuclear test could prompt the Soviet Union to offer Arab states a nuclear guarantee. “What this means is that: While we might ideally like to halt actual Israeli possession, what we really want at a minimum may be just to keep Israeli possession from becoming an established international fact,” Mr. Kissinger wrote. In December 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted publicly at this reality.

Responding to a question about the Iranian program in light of Israels nuclear arsenal, he said: “Israel is a democracy, Israel doesn’t threaten any country with anything, never did. The most that we tried to get for ourselves is to try to live without terror, but we never threaten another nation with annihilation. Iran openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they [Iran] are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?”

The 21 storey, 121-room, Haj House building in Mumbai which came up some 20 years ago for the benefit of Haj pilgrims , since then remains empty except the marriage hall on the ground floor and the mosque on the 4th floor. Various Mumbai based Muslim organizations have made representation to the Haj Committee of India (HCI), which falls under the ministry of external affairs (MEA), to hand over the part of the building for better utilization. Muslims have for long demanded that the Haj House be handed over to the community as a substantial portion of the property remains unused as several embarkation points for Haj pilgrims have been opened across the county. The argument given for handing over the Haj house to the community is the fact that “Muslims had contributed to the construction of the building”. Built on a plot spread over 1.48 lakh sq ft, work on the Haj House began in 1976, but construction remained in abeyance for years before former chairman of the state minorities commission, Amin Khandwani, became the Haj Committee’s chairman in 1982.

“We built it brick-by-brick. There is an auditorium with a capacity of 800. But it is not operational. The building is poorly maintained,’’ Khandwani said. But the ministry of external affairs is unable to take any decision because of the infighting amongst various Muslim organizations for taking control of the Haj house. To counter the demand MEA has obtained permission to start a coaching centre at Haj House for civil services aspirants. “We are in the process of appointing a director for the coaching centre, which will prepare candidates for IAS, IPS and other elite services,’’ he said.

Wasel Al-Muqrin, a 21-year-old college student, is aspiring to become a librarian, as he is fond of books. Sitting in front of a computer or in the passenger seat of a car, he looks normal. However, when talking to him or watching him move, one realizes he is not as normal as first assumed.

Al-Muqrin, a friendly young man, cannot walk on his own all the time; he needs someone to assist him. He is unable to keep his eyes focused and he has speech difficulties — he either speaks slowly or unclearly. These are symptoms of a medical condition called cerebral atrophy (CA).

CA, like cerebral palsy, affects the brain. It is best described as a scarcity of some cells in the brain that either causes the whole brain or parts of it to shrink. CA patients suffer from abnormalities in movement and posture. The disorder is often accompanied by disturbances of sensation, perception, cognition and communication.

Al-Muqrin has been lucky to have an understanding family that has supported him. “I have had cerebral atrophy since birth, but I went to a regular school and am now in college. Although it is tough most of the time, with my family members around me I feel lucky,” Al-Muqrin told Arab News. “When I was a child, I used to go to a regular school, not schools for the mentally challenged. My teachers understood my condition and I used to love going to school,” he added.

“Raising him up and taking care of his education to make him this ambitious and brilliant is not easy when we take into consideration some of the social misconceptions about disabilities,” said Al-Muqrin’s mother, Umm Fayyadh, a supervisor at Al-Abnaa School, a prestigious military education establishment in Riyadh.

Umm Fayyadh said she and her husband accepted the fate of having a child with such a condition, and that they have worked hard to build a good life for him. “He’s an amazing personality,” Umm Fayyadh said, adding that she is proud of her son regardless of his difficulties.