The Muslim World

Two regional blocs, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), have set out a broad vision of cooperation following recent talks between GCC Secretary-General Abdulrahman Al-Attiya and ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong. The talks focused on a regional and international issues and on ways to forge closer cooperation.


Yong said that the two organizations share similar views on a host of regional and international issues. A proposal to initiate dialogue between the two blocs was endorsed by the GCC foreign ministers and their ASEAN counterparts, who held their annual meeting on the fringes of 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York late last year.


A number of issues of mutual concern, including the situations in Iraq and Palestine , the impact of the Israeli war on Lebanon , combating terrorism in addition to economic, commercial and investment fields, were discussed.


Asked about any plan to sign a formal agreement to ensure closer GCC-ASEAN contacts, Yong said, “We sought to promote secretariat-to-secretariat level cooperation. The ASEAN is working with the GCC to develop modalities of cooperation in different sectors.”


He said that the draft charter would be submitted to leaders of the 10-member ASEAN for approval at their 13th summit slated for November in Singapore . “The construction and approval of the charter will be a milestone in ASEAN’s history, helping change the association into a more closely connected, effective and dynamic community,” he said.


ASEAN is home to 500 million people with a combined gross domestic product of $600 billion. Over the past few years member countries in the bloc have made considerable gains in fields, such as high economic growth, stability and poverty alleviation.


Member states have enjoyed substantial trade and investment flows from significant liberalization measures. ASEAN seeks, by the year 2020, to establish a peaceful and stable Southeast Asia where each nation is at peace with itself.

Members of the Provincial Assembly and experts working with the Punjab Aids Control Programme (PACP) will jointly train thousands of schoolteachers to educate their students about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like AIDS in line with the “Islamic philosophy of sex”, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Dr Farzana Nazir told the media.


She said that the campaign was specifically targeting the country’s youths, especially students. The venture aims to educate teenagers about sex according to the teachings of Islam. She added that the campaign was part of the government’s attempt to eradicate AIDS from Pakistan.


Dr Nazir said that pornography was misleading the country’s youth and lack of education about sex and the teachings of Islam on the subject was confusing them and leading them towards STDs. She said illicit relations and homosexuality were also causing the spread of STDs among young people.

Iran’s State Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that the Muslim world had been hit hard by internal strife over the past 1,400 years, underlining that sectarian violence in the Muslim world is one of the worst sins. “Most major ordeals the Muslim world went through were rooted in internal differences,“ Rafsanjani said at the inaugural ceremony of the 20th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran.


The SEC chief also said the enemies will fail to realize their objectives, as long as Muslim communities stand united, stressing that discord paves way for the presence of enemies in Muslim lands. “Today the enemy has stepped into our region and resorts to threats and intimidation openly and rudely, and interferes in regional affairs,“ he said.


He stressed that Muslim unity has to be bolstered, in view of the deployment of Western troops in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq. Rafsanjani, a former president, noted that differences of opinion among Muslim communities are natural, adding that such differences must not be allowed to boil over into conflicts “Today sectarian violence in the Muslim world is one of the worst sins. Those who blow themselves up in Kabul and Baghdad to kill other Muslims are unknown individuals with obscure thoughts,“ he said.


Rafsanjani said the sectarian war in Iraq is totally alien to Islam, because such conflicts are rooted in ignorance. “There is no doubt that the Americans have banked on differences and conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis.”


Personalities from 45 countries are attended the three-day conference.

The Saudi Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO), is to launch a nationwide campaign to encourage Saudi youths to undergo blood tests before marriage.


The test results will not necessarily prevent a couple from marrying if one or both of them are affected but they will acquaint the couple with the medical facts of their condition and the possible consequences on their children.


In 2004, a royal decree was issued directing Saudis to have pre-marital blood tests. This was an opportunity to quickly and accurately identify carriers of sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. During the past two years, the ministry has tested 48,8315 men and women and 5,860 of them were offered medical consultations for remedial treatment for their abnormalities.


During the first year, some 241,825 were tested and the health ministry rejected 9.2 per cent, declaring them incompatible partners. During the subsequent year, 11.6 per cent of the remaining 24,615 cases were rejected on similar grounds.

Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told a local daily recently that the Cabinet has agreed to allow anyone with a valid residence permit in a GCC state entry into Kuwait without requiring a visa. Sheikh Nasser also assured that taxes will not be imposed on Kuwaitis. The premier told Al-Rai newspaper that the wheels of economic reform will not stop and this involves passing the tax law which will be imposed on companies and foreign investors.

To hear that veiled Muslim women are discriminated against in foreign countries does not come to anybody’s surprise. However, many Muslims were surprised to learn that the Hijab might be the reason behind many female TV presenters becoming jobless in Egypt.


Two anchorwomen; Hala El Malki and Ghada El Tawil, decided to wear the Hijab and accordingly lost their jobs on the state-run TV station where they worked. In a country where 90 per cent of its residents are Muslims, one might be surprised to know that they are not free to practice their religion.


El Malki and El Tawil decided to fight such discrimination and took their battle to civil court which ruled in their favor in 2003 and asked the station to give them back their jobs. Upon the station’s refusal to abide by the court’s ruling, the two presenters took their case in 2005 to the state court, which again ruled in their favor.


The fact that the station denied them their jobs once again was not going to stop the ambitious presenters to fight more for their rights. But when they tried to force the station to abide by the earlier ruling, they were surprised to be rebuffed by the court which said that it had dealt with this case before.


That’s when the two anchorwomen decided to take their case to the international court. Ghada El Tawil told the BBC “We will go as far as we have to; it is our right to wear the veil”. She, then, highlighted that she is not trying to stand up for something extraordinary in a country where 75 per cent of the women are already wearing the Hijab. “If I was a doctor or a university professor there would be no problem about me wearing a hijab on television, so why can’t I do it reading the news.”


Even though human rights organizations are supporting the presenters through their battle, these women are facing some opposition from Egyptian residents. “This is a dress code they should stick to. If these anchors insist on the veil then she has to choose another job. Taking it to the international court will not solve anything,” one Cairo resident told the BBC.


In case these two TV presenters return to the screen with their Hijab, newspaper headlines would probably announce the victory of more than 30 female anchors who chose their Islamic headscarf over their TV careers during the past four years.

It has been always clear what Islam thinks of insurance and insurers; it’s plainly a kind of riba that is totally banned by the Holy Quran.


To start with, insurance companies will only insure subjects or people after they assume that there is a low possibility of an accident taking place. To make matters worse, insurance companies would take the money promising to pay the people more or less money, which under Islam, is pure riba. Since it’s a game of luck, many Muslims have decided to waive the thought of using any kind of insurance.


Despite this, insurers decided not to give up when it comes to providing Muslims interesting products that would fit their religion.


Munich-based Facility for Worldwide Unit Insurance (FWU), for example, has discovered the Middle East’s market for life insurance. Manfred Dirrheimer, the founder and head of FWU said “When we began in 2000, we saw that the offerings for life insurances in Islamic countries are quite small while the demand is growing. Western products offered there either didn’t conform with religious laws or they did conform, but didn’t make economic sense. We said that someone, who takes his faith seriously, shouldn’t be punished with bad products”.


That’s when Takaful was developed, which comply with the Islamic rules, where the money of the insured can only be invested in places that have been known to be pure according to Islamic laws.


Dirrheimer added “A classic insurance uses death rate statistics, look at when someone was born and then I know the probability that he or she will survive the contract. The policy premium is based on probability. And that’s a game of luck, according to an Islamic point of view”.


According to the Takaful policy, in case of accidents, the affected party only receives the money that was accumulated from the investment of the fund previously held by the insurer and therefore the insurer only acts as an administrator of such fund.


Germany has started offering the Takaful policy hoping to attract Muslims from the three million residing in the country.


However, no demand for such insurances was evident despite the fact that two third of these three million Muslims are religious according to the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance.