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Danish Pastries Rechristened 'Gul-e-Muhammad'
Tehran
The much-loved Danish pastries in Iran will now be known as ‘Gul-e-Muhammad’. The pastries made in Iran had taken the prefix ‘Danish’ for some inexplicable reason for all these years. But now the ire over the Danish cartoons and the Danish Government’s intransigence has angered the Iranians inasmuch as they have decided to rechristen the pastries as Gul-e.Muhammad or simply ‘Flowers of Muhammad’.
Iranians might be accused of fundamentalism by the West and extending it to the gastronomy. But West’s own record is no better. French refusal to join the George W. Bush’s so-called war on terror had made Americans to rename the ‘French Fries’ as ‘Freedom Fries’ and ‘French Toast’ to ‘Freedom Toast’.
The decision to change the name was taken by the Teheran Bakers Association following boycott of Danish products. Since pastries were locally made, the Association considered rechristening it.
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Islamic Business University
Kuwait
Kuwait will soon have an Islamic Business University. It would promote the interest-free banking and Islamic business concepts. Chief of the Islamic Investment Group, Shaikh Salman Al-Daudi As-Sabah stated that the University would train students in Islamic economics and business practices.
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Medical Sciences Conference
Cairo
The 9th conference of the Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences (IOMS) opened in the Egyptian capital, Cairo recently, to discuss a host of issues on human genetic and reproductive technologies. “We are living in a world where the real priority is given to science and scientific advancement, and this should be the real evaluation for any nation on this earth,” said Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed during the opening session. The four-day conference was co-organised by the Islamic Organization for Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It was hosted by the Cairo-based World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office. Prominent Muslim scholars from around the globe, including Egypt’s Mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa, Dr Hassaan Hathout, member of the board of trustee of the IOMS, Dr. Jamal Badawi as well as leading US and European Muslim figures participated in the conference.
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Inzamam Sets Up Hospital
Karachi
After cricket legend Imran Khan, it is now the turn of Pakistan cricket team captain, Inzamamul Huq to set up a hospital. Inzamam has of late turned towards public service and wants to set up a hospital. He is building Ameen Bakhtawar Trust Hospital in Multan with his friend Shaikh Rasheed. The first 25 per cent of the hospital premises has already come into shape in the form of a four-storeyed building block and will be commissioned from March. The block to be commissioned has four operation theatres and 70 beds. Inzamam took the touring Indian cricketers and the Pakistani team to visit the upcoming hospital.
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Interest-Free Credit Cards
Dubai
Dubai Islamic Bank is planning to launch Shariah compliant interest free credit cards. Holders of Al Islami Credit Cards will have a revolving credit facility without incurring any interest costs. They will pay 10 per cent of monthly usage besides the monthly subscription fee. Wasim Saifi, Executive Vice-President, Head of Retail and Business, Dubai Islamic Bank, said that, Al Islami Credit Cards offer all the convenient advantages of today’s credit cards, while remaining true to the value of Shariah and the principles of Riba-free Islamic banking. The new card is free from ‘Riba’ or interest, and free from the non-Islamic charges such as late payment fees or over limit fees.
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Think-Tank in Doha
Qatar
A renowned American think-tank, the Brookings Institution, plans to open a branch in Qatar which has been seeking to attract top-tier US academic institutes. The decision was announced at the end of a three-day US-Islamic forum in Doha attended by public figures and academics from both the Islamic world and the US, last month. The Brookings Institution would open an office in Doha, which will be the first branch to open outside of the United States and introduce the international model of independent think-tanks to the region. The US think-tank, Rand, already operates in Doha as the Rand-Q Policy Institute. Striking a claim as the Gulf’s learning hub, gas-rich Qatar, is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into drawing an array of the world’s best centres of excellence to Education City, built in the desert on the edge of Doha. The US-Islamic forum, jointly organised by the Qatari Foreign Ministry and Brookings, was held against the backdrop of Muslim anger against the West over the publication of Prophet Muhammad’s (Pbuh) cartoons in the Danish newspaper.
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Singing for Spirituality
Cairo
Through songs, celebrated British Muslim singer, Sami Yusuf has been seeking to promote spirituality, moral values and defend Islam and Muslims against ferocious campaigns in the West. “Spirituality is missing in the vast majority of most songs. The art world has been hijacked by the commercial environment. That’s why we have a vacuum in producing positive art with positive messages, promoting good values,” says the famed singer. Yusuf said his songs have been widely popular in Arab countries. His first album, “Al-Muallim” (Teacher) has achieved a remarkable success in Middle East countries, where his CDs sell alongside traditional pop, and his songs are played in shops and cafes. The 24 year-old singer was born into a musical family of Azeri origin. Yusuf’s second album, “My Ummah” (Muslim nation) was released last year. It features a song dedicated to people killed in a Beslan school when Russian forces stormed the building to free hostages taken by Chechen hostage-takers. The album also includes a song, “Free” which defends the right of Muslim women to wear hijab.
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$15 billion Dollar Aerospace Facility
Dubai
The booming Gulf Emirate of Dubai will set up a 15-billion-dollar aerospace enter-prise aimed mainly at providing worldwide maintenance services. The new facility will provide aircraft maintenance at world airports and lease planes, as well as set up an aviation academy, said Sheikh Ahmad bin Saeed al-Maktoum, chairman of Dubai’s flagship carrier, Emirates. Announcing the formation of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), Sheikh Ahmad said that, “within 10 years, DAE will become an integral part of the global aerospace industry”. “This region is in a position to shape the trends that will decide the future of the global industry,” he told an audience led by Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum, the driving force behind the Emirate’s ambitious projects.
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Hope for Bosnian Rape Victims
Sarajevo
The low-budget, Bosnian drama about the lasting impact of systematic rape of Muslim women, which won the Berlin film festival’s top prize last month, is drawing world attention to the dilemma of the Muslim victims. Jasmila Zbanic’s film, “Grbavica” won the prestigious Golden Bear for best film at the conclusion of the 56th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale). The film, named after a suburb of Sarajevo, tells the story of a Muslim woman who tries to conceal the grisly truth of her past to protect her teenage daughter in a society with a huge stigma attached to rape. Nearly 20,000 Muslim women were systematically raped during the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo, which was supposed to be a UN-protected “safe area.” At least 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in Srebrenica when Bosnian Serb forces and irregular Serbian police units backed by Belgrade overran the town. The massacre, in the final months of a 43-month war that claimed 200,000 lives, aimed to ensure there were no Muslims to fight back or reclaim Serb-occupied land or homes in the future. Zbanic spent months listening to women who were raped. At her acceptance speech, she accused fugitive wartime Serbian leaders, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic of being behind the systematic rape of Bosnian Muslim women. “War in Bosnia was over some 13 years ago and yet war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic still live in Europe freely,” said Zbanic, who also won the prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Peace Film Prize for the promotion of human values and peace.
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Saudi's First Woman Diplomat
Riyadh
A Saudi woman could well become the Kingdom’s first ‘ambassador-at-large’, according to the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Efforts are on to appoint at least five Saudi women in higher posts in the ministry. Brigadier General, Ali Al Qah’tani, director of prisons department in Riyadh, said some 49 Saudi women will be appointed in the rank of soldier in the department next month and the names too will be announced soon. “A new department for women has been started in the ministry’s court in Riyadh. All the facilities and arrangements are in place to make them available with working conditions in line with the Shariah rules and regulations as well as their social status and limitations,” he said, adding that the number of women employees will be increased in a phased manner when the need for more jobs arises.
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Mailboxes in Makkah
Jeddah
The Saudi Postal Corporation (SPC) is now delivering 1.3 million mailboxes to residential buildings in the Makkah Province. “This step will hopefully be accomplished by the end of this year,” said SPC President Muhammad Saleh Benton. This is the second step of the project titled “Wasel” that the SPC launched recently this year in Riyadh where it managed to deliver one million mailboxes to residential buildings. For an annual fee, residents can receive mail at these boxes rather than the local post office. The Jeddah municipality will receive 700,000 of these mailboxes while the remaining 300,000 mailboxes will be installed in the Makkah municipality. “SPC will soon offer the service of delivering parcels, enhancing express mails and delivering postal remittances,” said Benton.
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Paris Exhibit Revives Arab Golden Age
Paris
Presenting a view of the world far removed from the everyday cliches of obscurantism and violence, an exhibition titled, “The Golden Age of Arab Science” is proving an unexpected hit at the Arab World Institute in Paris. The exhibition is built around three themes - the sky, the living world and art - and has drawn in more than 100,000 visitors at a rate of about 1200 a day, “which is an exceptional result for a difficult subject”, according to the Arab World Institute (IMA) head of communications, Philippe Lemoine. The exhibition explores the Arab world’s scientific achievements from the 8th to 15th centuries and is made up of about 200 pieces, from maps to manuscripts, astrolabes and globes. “They are coming because they want to understand a part of the world which is in the news every day for the worst of reasons. They want to get over the cliches,” says Lemoine.
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