The Muslim World

Saudi Arabia has launched an official website for fatwas, or religious rulings, issued by a number of official religious scholars. www.alifta.com aims to provide “quick access to fatwas on an official website,” says a committee affiliated with the Council of Senior Ulema (Islamic scholars). Visitors to the website will be able to post questions and get replies from the council, which operates the site. A section of the site is devoted to the former head of the council, Shaikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz, who issued a controversial fatwa in 1991 prohibiting women from driving cars. The move is apparently an attempt to ensure that fatwas issued are given prominence. IINA

Acting on World Health Organization recommendations to counter the spread of cholera, Saudi Health Ministry spokesman said that pilgrims arriving in the Kingdom will have their food and drinks confiscated. The ministry emphasized that no outbreak of infectious diseases has been reported and that this move is merely in response to advice from the WHO. “We have gone into action promptly to keep the disease away from our doorsteps and we have totally banned Umrah pilgrims from bringing food or drinks,” said Khalid Al-Mirghalani. He said the Ministry of Health is paying special attention to pilgrims coming from countries that have reported cholera outbreaks, such as Iran, Iraq and Bangladesh. “We have also instructed Saudi missions in these countries to ensure that the pilgrims come here only after vaccination against cholera,” he said. IINA

Malaysia will produce the world’s first Halal vaccine for meningitis. The vaccine, which will benefit thousands of Haj pilgrims, will be produced by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in two years. This was disclosed by Higher Education Minister, Mustapa Mohamed. USM would work with the Finlay Institute in Cuba to produce the vaccine. According to the minister, a memorandum of understanding between USM and Finlay Institute would be signed in Cuba in December. He said 12 medical specialists from USM and 30 experts from the institute would work together to produce the vaccine from Halal extracts of animals slaughtered according to Islamic tenets. Currently, the vaccine for meningitis was imported from Western countries which produced it from pig extracts. IINA

A software suite that provides Islamic prayer times and calendar, Qibla direction, as well as an Arabic-English-Arabic dictionary and recitations from the Holy Qur’an is proving a big hit with pocket PC, smart phone and mobile device users in the Middle East. The innovative Stars Suite for mobile devices which unites the requirements of Muslims with high technology comes from CIT MobiDiv - the mobile division of CIT Global - a world leader in development of culturally based software for mobiles. The CIT MobiDiv’s Stars Suite is a software bundle that converts Java-based devices into any local language.

The opening verses of the Sura Al-Qamar in the Qur’an talk about the miracle of Shaq-ul-Qamar (the splitting of the moon into two), and new photographs of the moon taken by NASA prove the miracle, said a prominent Islamic scholar. Addressing a conference titled “Splitting of the Moon, Miracle of Prophet Mohammad, Based of NASA’s Studies” at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla, Ayatollah Abdulkareem Biazar Shirazi read out the first verse’s of Sura Al-Qamar: “The hour drew nigh and the moon did rend asunder” (54:1) and said “This verse is about a miracle performed by the Prophet (Pbuh) upon the request of the people of Makkah. The conference was organised by the cultural deputy of the Islamic Azad University on the sidelines of the 15th International Qur’an Exhibition, Scientists at NASA have determined that along with spiral and circular splits, there is a straight split going through the middle of the moon. They believe the split is the result of a meteor impact on the moon, whereas the shape of the split clearly shows that the moon has once been divided in two parts and then the two parts have come together again. IINA

Dealing a stunning blow to the Bush administration, a US District court judge declared a mistrial on almost all of the counts against an Islamic charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian resistance group Hamas. “You are at the end of your service in this case,” presiding Judge A. Joe Fish told the jurors in a Dallas court before declaring a mistrial on the vast majority of the nearly 200 counts applying to the six accused, including the Holy Land Foundation itself. Fish declared the mis-trial after jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the trial of the Texas-based charity after 19 days of deliberations. The judge sent the jury back to deliberate after they acquitted three of the charity’s five leaders of most of the charges against them, but were unable to reach a verdict against two others and the charity itself. When they returned, jurors said they could not agree on any of the charges except a not guilty verdict on all, but one of the 32 charges against the charity’s top fund raiser. Government prosecutors allege the foundation raised millions of dollars for the Palestinian group Hamas, but they do not accuse the charity of directly financing “militant” activities. IINA

Pakistan will launch “Pakistan Study Centre” in December at the Peking University in China. This was stated by Ambassador Salman Bashir while participating in the 4th Peking University International Cultural Festival in which Pakistan also took part by establishing a stall and presenting a cultural show. IINA

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and several Arab and Muslim countries, including Iraq, condemned a US Senate plan to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, saying it would only fuel more violence. Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of OIC, which groups 57 Muslim countries, said the Bosnia-style plan, billed as a way out of the sectarian strife since the 2003 US-led invasion, would only “deepen the roots of unrest and sectarian killing amongst the children of the state.” The secretary general said he was surprised at this plan which only carries more disunity for Iraq and further exacerbation of social strife and sectarian warfare among the people of Iraq. “What is needed now is not the division of the country, but rather unity and a real national reconciliation,” he said in a statement.

Saudi businessmen have pleaded with the Government to opt for Friday-Saturday as weekend holidays instead of current Thursday-Friday. Members of Chambers of Commerce at Riyadh and Jeddah feel that the current scheme leaves virtually two and half days for the business firms to deal with their counterparts in the Western countries where business firms and offices are closed on Saturday-Sunday. Of the remaining three days i.e., Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, another half a day gets lost because of the two and half hour time difference between the Middle East and Western Europe. As for the US, it leaves only two days as the two regions fall in two different time zones altogether. Elimination of Thursday would enable them to add one more day in a business week for the two sides to converse, communicate and deal with each other.

France will host a donors’ conference in December 2007 to raise funds for laying the foundations of a Palestinian State, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and Kouchner will lead the conference, which was requested by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, An exact date has not yet been set, but Kouchner said it would fall about two weeks after a Mid-east peace conference to be held in Annapolis, Maryland. (IINA)

Disturbed by daily scenes of bloodletting in a country plagued by sectarian killings and daily bombings, Iraqi children have developed a penchant for toy guns, following in the footsteps of their fathers, and imitating horrific scenes that left them shocked for life. This has reflected on Iraqi children being totally preoccupied with their toy weapons.


Since the 2003 US invasion, Iraq has plunged into abyss with overlapping civil conflicts that have left tens of thousands of civilians dead. A recent study by the Association of Psychologists of Iraq (API) found that violence was profoundly affecting the Iraqi children, being preoccupied with guns, bullets, death and fears. (IINA)

The All Parties Minorities Alliance demanded recently that the representation of the minority communities in parliament be increased by 36 per cent. Speaking at a press conference, APMA chairman Shehbaz Bhatti said that while the number of seats for the majority community in the national and provincial assemblies was increased by 36 per cent on the occasion of the last general election, the number of seats for the minority communities were not increased, “which is a clear discriminatory act”. He said the number of seats in the Senate had also been increased, but there was no reserved seat for the minority communities in the Upper House. He demanded that five seats one each from the four provinces and one from the federal capital be reserved for them so that they could safeguard their rights at the law-making forums. Hindus and Christians in Pakistan constitute around five per cent of the population and have 10 seats in the National Assembly.

New York’s Empire State Building was lit up in green last month to honour Eid -ul- Fitr. This is the first time the building was illuminated for the festival. Officials say the green lighting will become an annual event, following the tradition of coloured lights at the tower to mark the Christian holiday, Christmas and the Jewish celebration of Hannukah. The Empire State Building dominates the New York skyline, and once again became the city’s tallest building when the World Trade Center Towers were destroyed by terror attacks on September 11, 2001

The United Arab Emirates has called for holding an international conference to combat international terrorism. The statement was made by Majid Ali Mohammad Al Mansouri, member of the UAE delegation at the UN Session on ‘Measures to Eradicate International Terrorism’. Al Mansouri noted that the UAE backs the UN role in mobilizing international efforts to adopt an effective strategy to combat terrorism. He called for taking practical and effective steps not only to track down on perpetrators and financers of the terrorist acts, but also to address the root causes of terrorism. (IINA)

How Gulf Arabs invest their savings? It is estimated that the six GCC states (i.e., Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates) earned about $ 1.5 trillion from oil exports between 2002 and 2006. Around $ 1 trillion of that money was used for imports. The remainder or the surplus i.e., $542 billion also went abroad in investment. But question is how and where?


The Institute of International Finance (IIF) recently made some educated guesswork. Of this, nearly half or $260 billion went into buying American shares, government bonds and buying foreign companies particularly, European ones. Of the remaining $280 billion, a considerable amount is retained in the sukuk, debt-like instruments permitted under Islamic law, which does not allow the payment of interest. Though exact figures are not available, IIF estimates that $21 billion were invested in sukuk in 2006, itself 46 per cent more than on the investment in this sector in previous year.


The IIF guesses that some $100 billion or 20 per cent of the five-year surplus went to Europe, buying bonds and shares as well as firms and property. Another $60 billion may have gone to Asia, where Arab oil exporters are pouring money into infrastructure projects as well as buying property and firms.


(courtesy: Economist, London)

Two Muslim women who are prospective parliamentary candidates could become Britain’s first Muslim women MPs at the next general election. Yasmin Qureshi, 44, of Pakistani origin, and Rushnara Ali, 32, of Bengali origin, have been selected for the seats in Bolton South East and Bethnal Green and Bow, respectively.


Qureshi, a barrister and currently the human rights adviser to Mayor of London’s office, has worked for the Government Legal Services and the Crown Prosecution Service as well as heading the Criminal Legal Section of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and later directing the Department of Judicial Administration there. Qureshi will be succeeding Labour MP, Brian Iddon who won during the last general election.

A UK charity organization is constructing a highway prayer facility for Muslim motorists. Preston based Charity has been granted license to accommodate Muslim travellers, who up till now had struggled to follow their faith when on the road. If successful, the charity hopes to acquire other prayer facilites at other busy UK service stations for prayers. The licensing is consequent to general awareness about the Islamic rites and rituals. Most Britons now recognize the month of Ramadan and are familiar with the terms of suhoor, iftar and taraweeh. Fasting British Muslims have seen their needs taken care of than ever before with many big British companies offering prayer facilities, halal catering and giving workers time off for Friday prayers as long as that time is made up later in the day. Several TV channels interrupt programmes to announce breakfast time for Muslim viewers.

A rare collection of historical religious objects from the Sahara and sub Sahara region of Africa, some items dating back to the early 18th century are on show at a special exhibition in Britain. The exhibition, called “Islam in Africa”, is on at the Sam Fogg art gallery in London. This exhibition truly shows the diversity and richness of the Islamic art of the Sahara and of sub-Sahara Africa.

A Qatari national who was given a gift of a 400-year-old copy of a handwritten y Qur’an by a Yemeni Islamic scholar in Makkah last Ramadan says he is getting offers of up to $4.3 million to part with the rare book. “I might agree to part with it if I get a good offer. The last offer I got was for $4.3m,” said Saeed Ali Al Suwaidi.


He said he went to Makkah in Ramadan last year and had a chance meeting with a Yemeni Islamic scholar. “We began talking after a preliminary introduction. He told me that he had a rare copy of the Qur’an. It was handwritten and a little less than 400 years old. He asked me if I would accept it for safe-keeping.” The scholar told Al Suwaidi that it was a great calligraphic work and took Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Qassem Al Aqwa five years to complete it in 1034 H. The paper used is thick and shiny and has a long life. “I agreed to accept the copy for I felt I was being blessed.” Al Suwaidi said that after he took the copy, his life changed and he became a happier man. But soon word spread about it and he began getting offers. Three people, each from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, approached him. One of them offered him $4.3m to part with it, but he did not.

Europe’s first major conference on intolerance against Muslims wrapped up in Spain last month with participants stressing that media and education hold the key to solving the problem. “Education is a fundamental instrument in the prevention and treatment of intolerance and discrimination against Muslims,” Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told the two-day gathering organized by the OSCE in the southern city of Cordoba. Spain currently holds the rotating presidency of the 56-nation member Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Europe’s roughly 15 million Muslims face discrimination in jobs, education and housing and the problem is rising, experts told the conference. The head of research and data collection at the Vienna-based European Fundamental Rights Agency, Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos, said that studies show “Muslim pupils tend to have a lower level of educational achievement”.


“The debate often focuses too much on the question of the veil and ignores the problems of access to education faced by Muslims,” said Abdelnur Prado, the director of the International Congress of Islamic Feminism. The media’s role in fuelling Islamophobia also came under scrutiny at the conference.

Human Rights Association President, Reyhan Yalçýndag has described Turkey’s headscarf ban as a form of violence against women. “The introduction to the Constitution stresses cultural differences as being the richness of the society, yet at the same time ethnicity is stressed by calling the citizens of Turkey ‘Turks’. This is hypocrisy as is the case with the women who wear headscarves,” she said. She noted that women who are believers are kept away from education and work because they wear headscarves. But men who are believers do not face the same punishment. “Therefore, a ban on headscarves is violence against women. We need a new provision in the constitution that deals with this issue, but the government, which calls itself liberal and pro-freedom, has still not solved this problem in its sixth year”, she said. (IINA)

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz has issued orders to keep the doors of the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah open 24 hours a day throughout the year for visitors and worshippers. This was disclosed by Madinah Governor Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Majed. Until now the Prophet’s Mosque closed after the last prayer (Isha) and reopened for the pre-dawn prayer (Fajr). The Haram Mosque in Makkah is open 24 hours a day. Sheikh Saleh Al-Hussein, head of the Presidency of for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques, said from now on the Madinah Mosque’s doors would be closed only for routine maintenance services. IINA

The Director General of the Islamic, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) Dr. Abdul Aziz Al Tuwaijri announced that ISESCO would support nomination of Tangier, North Morocco, for hosting the international exhibition for 2012. Dr Al Tuwaijri said that Tangier has a historical significance in addition to the fact that it was the birthplace of the famous traveler Ibn Batouta. “Morocco is the most suitable place for convening this international exhibition,” he said adding that the organization of the show will provide a good opportunity to project Islam in its true perspective. IINA

Palestinians launched their first census in a decade recently, visiting thousands of homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the hope of boosting their bid for an independent state. About 1,000 officials spread out across towns in Palestinian territories, drawing blue and red numbers on homes and offices, ahead of a head count in December.


Palestinian officials hope the first census since 1997 will lay the ground for a future independent state and bolster their position in peace talks with Israel. President Mahmoud Abbas, said. “We speak about institution building for an independent state, and this is a basic ingredient.” Palestinians say the census will help them develop a governing strategy and give them specific data to outline needs in terms of schools, hospitals, roads and other services. IINA

The Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation hosted the Knowledge Conference in Dubai, bringing together Arab thinkers and experts to help promote knowledge-based societies in the region. The two-day conference, which opened on October 28, analyzed key challenges and opportunities for knowledge development in the Arab World. The Dubai conference was the first initiative for the Foundation, which was launched by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, earlier this year with a personal endowment of $10 billion. IINA

Germany’s Muslim community is planning to more than double the number of mosques in the country over the next few years, according to figures released by an Islamic institute. “We have recorded 184 projects to build new mosques, of which some are already under construction, “said Salim Abdullah, of the German Institute of Islamic Archives. “We are talking here about buildings with a dome and a minaret, which are clearly recognizable from the outside, and not the 2,600 prayer areas housed in various buildings throughout the country,” he added. There are now 159 mosques in Germany compared to just three in 1990, to serve a Muslim minority that numbers more than three million. IINA

The UN warned of the danger of a refugee crisis in northern Iraq. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres also urged the international community to do more to help Jordan and Syria deal with masses of Iraqi refugees, including taking in some of the refugees themselves. “The northern governorate, or Kurdistan has been the most stable area of Iraq,” Guterres said during a visit to Brussels. “It is an area also where you find Iraqis from the south and central Iraq who came seeking security. “I can only express our very deep concern about any development that might lead to meaningful displacements of population in that sensitive area,” Guterres said. IINA

German born Turk Murat Kurnaz who spent five years in Guantanamo prison, has authored a book in German titled, Funf Jahre meines Lebens: Ein Bericht aus Guantanamo. Then (in 2001) Kurnaz was 19 and was picked up by the German police while he was returning from Pakistan at the fag end of year 2001. He had gone to Pakistan to learn more about Islam and had a clean record. But German Police looking at his long flowing beard, passed him on to the US authorities suspecting him to be a Taliban fighter. Kurnaz has narrated his hellish tale with modesty and compassion. American torture experts would play rock music whole night, desecrate copies of the Qur’an, regularly beat the detainees, deprive him of sleep, and sexually harass him.


At one stage in 2002, German Intelligence declared him ‘harmless’, yet the Americans, who concluded that he was a Taliban fighter, would not let him off. After the change of government in Germany in 2005, the Angela Merkel government took up his case and got him free.


Kurnaz now lives in Bremen driving a sports car and working at discos. The script bears no animus against his American torturers. The 285-page book has been co-authored by Kurnaz and Helmut Kuhn and published by Rowoholt.

The construction of the 45-km Friendship Causeway linking Qatar and Bahrain will start soon. The Qatar and Bahrain Causeway Foundation (QBCF) signed a memorandum of understanding with a joint venture formed by Qatari company Al Diyar and French construction group Vinci announcing the beginning of work by May 2008. QBCF’s chairman, Ahmad Hassan Al Hammadi, said the $2 billion causeway will link the Qatari coast of Ras Ashiraj to the village of Askar on the eastern coastline of Bahrain.


The Friendship Causeway will become the world’s longest fixed link and will be an extension of the King Fahd Causeway between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, thus linking the entire region.

Malaysian Resources Corp. is in talks to build a $2 billion transport and housing development in Saudi Arabia, its biggest overseas project so far. “The opportunities are there,” managing director Shahril Ridza Ridzuan said. “It’ll take off in a year’s time.” The development will be in Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah or Riyadh, he said. The company, builder of Malaysia’s biggest bus and rail hub in Kuala Lumpur, plans to export the model to the Mid-east, where oil revenue is helping fund $1 trillion worth of building projects.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) signed an agreement worth $189 million to finance the Mohammedia Gas Turbine Power Plant Project in Morocco. Dr. Amadou Boubacar Cisse, vice president of IDB, represented the bank in signing the agreement while Morocco was represented by its Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Abdul Karim Al Samar and Mr. Yonus Kamal Mouamar, the CEO of Morocco’s National Electricity Office, at a ceremony held at the bank headquarters in Jeddah. The project aims at meeting the electricity needs of Morocco’s growth by adding about 300 mw of additional power to the electricity generation system.