News

The Director of Arabic Affairs at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Alaa Bayoumi, said that half of the American Society supports Arabs and Muslims, and sympathises with them, even though it is less influential in the political arena than the other half. Bayoumi based this fact on different opinion polls held on the position of the American public opinion regarding Islam and Muslims during the last three years. He said, this opinion polls show that the percentage of Americans who have a positive opinion on Islam dropped down to 39 per cent in September 2003 as against 47 per cent in October, 2001, on the contrary the percentage of those who are not sympathetic with Islam reached 38 per cent of the American people, while percentage of Americans who wish to know more on Muslims and Arabs is about two third of the American people. The opinion polls, also show that the American society is united in its position on Muslims and Arabs, but when divided, its division is inclined to the side of our support, not the opposite, 40 per cent of the Americans are therefore, supporting us and the same percentage of others are not sympathetic with us, whereas the remaining 20% are undecided, but are open-minded and want to know more about us and our issues”. Bayoumi divided American associations and groups supporting Muslims and Arab issues into 4 basic major groups: first civil rights and liberty groups-like American Civil Liberty Union which is firmly standing against the discriminations faced by Muslims and Arabs, in the USA, since Sept. 11, 2001. The second group is made up of members of American minorities like the African Americans, Japanese Americans, Asian Americans who became sympathetic with Muslims and Arabs since the events of Sept.11, 2001.

The third group is made up of some peace movements opposed to American wars, and whose support for Muslims and Arabs increased since the event of September 11, in general and since the war on Iraq, in particular. The fourth group is made up of some American religious groups, spearheaded by the National Council of Churches U.S.A, which represent 10 million Americans and which rejects the linking of Muslims and Arabs with terrorism.

The first British based Islamic bank has been given the go-ahead by City watchdog- the Financial Services Authority. The Islamic Bank of Britain, which will start operating from September, this year will give Britain’s 1.8 million Muslims access for the first time to a British bank which is operated in accordance with Sharia principles. While there are other banks in the UK which offer products that follow Islamic principles, they all have their origins within non-Sharia banks. Under Islamic principles it is forbidden to give or receive interest, and any money invested must be put into purely ethical industries and cannot be invested in companies that deal with interest, tobacco or alcohol. Instead of lending money and charging interest, the Islamic bank will buy real items and lease them back. The Islamic Bank’s headquarters will be in Birmingham and it will open its first branch in Edgware Road, London.

The Department of Statistics and Planning in the Palestinian Ministry of prisoners and detainees affairs, in its latest report reveals that the number of Palestinians detained in the Israeli occupation prisons has reached 7,200. More than 2,500 children were arrested since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, started on September 28, 2000. The presence of 465 children detainees in Israeli prisons puts their ratio at 7.9 per cent of the total number of confirmed detainees. Moreover, there are 25 children under administrative detention, without any particular charge, 283 children awaiting trial, 157 children sentenced, and 39 sick children needing medical care. The age of 225 children, representing 47 per cent of the detained children, ranges between 16-17 years. 230 children detainees are now beyond the age of 18 and still in detention. 94 per cent of the detained children are subjected to torture. The report stressed the use of torture in Israeli prisons, indicating the use of other methods of torture that are internationally forbidden, but are still used against the detainees.

A Saudi in the southern city of Abha claims to own one of the oldest handwritten copies of the holy Qur'an. On the first page of the Quran, there is a note that the copy was written in the Hijrah year 116, more than 1,300 years ago. Muhammad ibn Nasser Al-Kudry said he bought the Qur'an some years ago from an old man and that he paid a large sum for it. Covered in natural leather with Islamic calligraphy, the Qur'an is written in an Arabic script known as cursive Neskhi. Anwar Muhammad Al-Khalil, super-visor of the Shada Archaeological Palace in Abha, described the Qur'an as beautiful. “I cannot say exactly when it was written. In order to find that out, we must have it examined at a specialized research centre,” he explained. According to the Saudi Press Agency, the Qur'an is written on natural paper and is free of ornamentation.

The Egyptian minister of Justice, Mahmoud Abou Khalil said that the “Sharia court dealing with family issues like marriages, divorces, sustenance, child custody, separation, lineage and individual matters”, would begin functioning soon. Over 15 ministerial edicts governing how to apply rules of Family Sharia Court have been taken. The ministry had also trained 1,257 judges who will be in charge of such courts.The Minister has also announced that 820 public prosecutors have been trained to take charge of family affairs. On the purposes of establishing such courts, the minister said: “it is to expedite judgment on family cases, particularly, child sustenance issues. There are 2 million pending cases in Egypt”.

The Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation has demanded the release of Palestinian- American Ahmad Abu Ali, 23, who has been ‘illegally detained’ in a Saudi prison from June 2003 at the request of the US Government. It said the Saudi Government has stated that it had no reason to hold Abu Ali in prison and that he was being detained on the request of the American government. Abu Ali was a resident of Falls Church and no specific charges were framed against him. Foundation’s secretary Mahdi Bray said the recent exoneration of the former detainees, Army’s Muslim chaplain James Yee and Oregon attorney Brandon Mayfield were index enough that Muslims were being intimidated, harassed and illegally detained in America.

An official field study indicates that a large number of people in Wadi Araba are still living in mud and grass houses. There are families who do not possess herds of sheep and depend on bread and tea for their living. A latest study carried out by the ministry of Social Development, shows that there are families who can eat meat only on some occasions. The study shows that the average income of families living in Wadi Araba ranges from 90 to 120 Riyals per month. The sources of their income consist of 25% from national assistance fund, 18% military pension and social security, 8% from rearing livestock, 9 % from farming and 8% from unspecified works. The area of the region of Wadi Araba located in the North of Aqaba city is 6,400 sq.kms. It is the part of the Kingdom of Jordan most affected by drought.

In tandem with the opening of Mostar's reconstructed Old Bridge, the Mayor of Mostar and representatives of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and the World Monuments Fund (WMF) have announced the establishment of an agency to guide future conservation and development projects in the city. The Stari grad agency is an outgrowth of a five-year collaborative effort between AKTC, WMF and the city of Mostar to plan for the preservation of the city's important historic core. To date the two agencies have invested nearly US$5 million in this effort. The AKTC/WMF program, established in 1999, responded to the urgent need for a framework for the reconstruction of the historic core of the city in order to put a halt to the hasty and unregulated development that took place in the aftermath of the 1993 war. “Our work complements the reconstruction of the Old Bridge and places the restored Bridge in the social and environmental context of a living historic city”, said Bonnie Burnham, WMF's President and Dr. Stefano Bianca, Director of the AKTC's Historic Cities Support Programme, in a joint statement.

The International Islamic Media Organization, an affiliate of the Muslim World League (MWL), will hold the second Islamic Communication Conference, in Kuwait soon. A statement from the Secretary General of the MWL, Dr. Abdullah Al-Turki, says that the second conference on communication will be held, in cooperation with Kuwaiti Ministry of Endowment and Islamic Affairs, on the theme: “Mechanism of Islamic Communication Discourse to the West”.

The Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Endowments will organise the 26th edition of the International Holy Quran competition in memorization and reading, from September 25th to October 2nd, 2004. The competition consists of five categories in which competitors from different countries will take part.

Rams Sharasta, the UNICEF representative in Yemen, has disclosed that the number of Yemeni children below the age of ten being smuggled out reached about 9,000 last year. The representative of the UNICEF after discussions with a number of parliament members on the area of cooperation in preventing child trafficking, described the figure as horrible and a source of concern, as the number is continuously increasing, with existence of an organised practice of child trafficking.

The Muslims of Canada organised the first summer festival in Toronto, western Canada, recently comprising a number of artistic and cultural activities and an exhibition of Muslim Art. The festival was attended by more than 10,000 visitors from many nationalities. The Chairman of the festival, Farheen Chaudhary, said “our aims are that the festival presents Islam in a modern form for both Muslims and non-Muslims”, adding that, “many believe that art is capable of solving religious differences and earning appreciation from Muslims and non-Muslims,” at the same time. The number of Muslims is continuously increasing and is about 6,00,000, out of Canada’s population of 30 million, making Islam one of the fast growing religions. A census carried out in May 2003 shows that Islam is the first religion among non-Christian faiths, in the Quebec region.

A young Muslim girl from Hayes was one of the 140 runners who carried the Olympic torch through the city of London on June 26. Shazida Khatun Uddin, 15, a pupil at Meadow High School in Hillingdon, Middlesex, was one of 14 youngsters around the country to carry the Olympic flame for approximately 400m as part of a global torch relay to take the flame back to Athens, Greece. Shazida suffers from cerebral palsy. “I feel proud to run for my country and I am very happy,” says Shazida. Head-teacher of Meadow School, Ross Macdonald, told The Muslim News why Shazida was nominated. “Shazida was nominated by the school because she’s always cheerful. She’s had a lot to put up with, overcoming the difficulties of repeated surgery, but still she smiles through any adversity.” Although Shazida is reliant on a walking frame for mobility, she takes a full part in her school life. Her teachers also described her as “a successful cultural ambassador.”

The Ulama Council at the Islamic Center in Tajikistan decided to prevent women from performing prayer or attending religious lessons in mosques, a decision which provoked a wide range of criticism from religious personalities and citizens, who considered that the decision does not conform to the tenets of Islam and infringes on the rights of women. The chairman of the Fatwa committee at the Ulama Council, Sheikh Kadiri Ijahmabidiev said that “the Ulama Council issued an official decision forbidding the presence of women in mosques”. He justified this decision by saying that “the presence of women in the mosque could provoke temptations that could lead to contact with men, because most of the mosques in the country do not provide separate section for women.”. The population of Tajikistan is 6 million, most of them are Muslims. In the capital, Dushanbe, there are 17 mosques.

Amat Al-Aleem Al-Sosowa, the Minister for Human Rights in Yemen was honoured by the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a US based group. Sosowa was the first woman TV announcer, first woman ambassador and first woman permanent under-secretary to the Ministry of Information. Vital Voice intends to develop a programme for Women’s Leadership Initiative in the Middle East and would be ‘equipping women with skill and resources for leadership from Yemen to Turkey and Morocco to Afghanistan. The group also conferred special recognition on Fatima Hassan Mohammad Al-Migdadi, member of the Baghdad City Council in Occupied Iraq for ‘active involvement in re-building her country’ after bombing by the US forces.