News

Israel stunned Arab leaders, gathering in the Algerian capital for a two-day summit recently, swiftly spurning a “reactivated” Middle East peace initiative.


A senior official from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office stated that the Arabs were trying “to give this illusion of unity on the surface by adopting resolutions that contradict with all of the advances made, particularly by Egypt and Jordan, which is unacceptable”.


Egypt and Jordan have recently sent back their ambassadors to Tel Aviv for the first time in four years. The summit’s final declaration makes peace with Israel conditional on the creation of an independent Palestinian state and the return of refugees. The final declaration pledges Arab support for Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians’ efforts to recover land occupied by Israel. It reaffirms “respect for Iraq’s unity, sovereignty and independence and non-interference in its domestic affairs.” It likewise condemned “terrorism in all its forms and regardless of its motives and justifications,” and said it should not be linked to Islam.

The Russian Islamic Heritage, a new public movement, had an inaugural conference in Moscow recently. If it proves a success, we shall be able to say this country has a Muslim lobby now. Many VIPs are standing at the Heritage like Hussein Jabrailov, chief of the Foundation in Support of Democracy and Social Progress; Shamil Beno, his deputy; Senators Umar Jabrailov and Ralif Safin; Geidar Jemal, Russian Islamic Committee chair; and Adalet Jabiev, Badr-Forte Bank board chair.


To consolidate the Russian Muslim community and make it immune to extremist trends is the main Heritage goal. Its founding fathers also mean to prove to all Russians that Muslims are a dynamic and positive part of the nation. “We are Russians. We are part and parcel of this country, and we mean to be active in its political and social developments,” they point out.

The Boyd Report has recommended continued use of religious laws for arbitration of disputes in Ontario province in Canada. The 150-page report was prepared by the Attorney General Marion Boyd following a representation by the province’s four lakh Muslims that the 1991 Arbitration Act be reviewed in order to see if they could apply Islamic principles in marital discords and inheritance disputes.


Nearly 200 people met the Attorney and 40 submissions were made. Boyd’s verdict was released in December last. It said: 1- Suitable amendments be carried out in Family Law Act and Arbitration Act to prepare the arbitration and mediation agreements in the same manner as marriage contracts and separation agreements, 2-imposing a duty on the parties to the disputes that parties understand their rights and participation is voluntary, 3-a call for regulations to ensure proper record keeping, mandating written decisions and training of arbitrators, 4-public education and community development. These are part of the 46 well-defined recommendations.


Several Muslims had wished to use the instrument of arbitration as contained in the Chapter 4 (Surah Nisa) verse no. 35 in matters of matrimonial disputes. Several other communities such as Jews and Christians use their religious laws under the Act and Jewish Beth Dins (Rabbinical courts) regularly arbitrate on matters pertaining to matrimonial and business disputes.


Legal sources point out that the Boyd Report does not herald advent of Sharia laws in Canada. They pointed out that it only provides a para-legal course or alternative dispute resolution mechanism which is gaining popularity in matters of family disputes.


However concern has also been expressed about Muslim women being coerced by family members into unfair decision due to inadequate understanding of law and their rights. But there is also a general opinion that family matters be settled outside the court and for this reason the review of the Arbitration Act would lend transparency to the law in this matter.

A new study on the social and economic characteristics of Makkah residents reveals some surprising and alarming facts of life in the holy city. According to the study conducted by Makkah Development Authority, the average monthly spending of a family in Makkah is SR3,000 and for an individual the average is SR700. Only 9.5 percent of the families spend an average SR6,000 a month, while 55 per cent spend less than SR3,000 and 35.2 percent between SR3,000 and SR6,000. The study also found that the work force in Makkah is about 3,28,200 (the study did not indicate if this included women), of which 73.4 percent are employed and 26.6 percent are unemployed, making the number of unemployed in Makkah alone to be 87,301.


The study also found that 70 percent of Makkah residents are financially dependent on the breadwinners, 66 percent of those dependants are minors and 4 percent elderly.


The study indicated that the city’s economy depends largely on services where 91.4 percent of the labor force is involved in the services sector. The study showed that 25 per cent of Makkah residents are expatriates with the highest non-Saudi community being Yemenis who make up 19 percent of the expatriates. The study showed that 23.4 percent of the residents have elementary school education and 40 percent have a high school degree. Other findings by the study include that 30 percent of Makkah residents are deprived of sewerage services, while 25 percent are not connected to the general water system.

BBC Urdu has launched a major campaign to meet its audiences across Pakistan and promote its flagship programme Sairbeen. The BBC Sangat… Kahain Aap Sunain Hum (You Say, We Listen) campaign takes BBC Urdu teams directly to listeners in the provinces of Balochistan, Sindh, and Punjab where meetings with wide local communities will be held. For more information, contact: Karachi Ahsen Idris, Blitz DDB, ahsen.idris@blitz.com.pk London: Lala Najafova, International Publicist, BBC World Service, lala.najafova @bbc.co.uk

Malaysia has moved to limit the powers of its Islamic morality watchdogs, saying their overzealous work is violating civil rights and could turn the country into a Taliban-era Afghanistan. The religious department, whose job is to prevent immoral behaviour among Muslims, has come under severe criticism recently for raiding public and private premises to haul up couples suspected of breaking Islamic morality rules. Nazri Abdul Aziz, a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said the religious department officials now must get police approval before raids and must conduct them accompanied by police officers. The Islamic officials occasionally raid locations such as discos. But the inspections generally involve parks and hotels to curb khalwat, or “close proximity,” a crime akin to adultery applying to un-chaperoned meetings between men and women who are not married to each other. More than half of Malaysia’s 25 million people are ethnic Malay Muslims.

Appointed: Paul Wolfowitz who crafted the US occupation of Iraq has been nominated by the US President George Bush for the post of President of the World Bank. Wolfowitz was deputy secretary of State in the previous Bush administration under Colin Powell and the two hardly ever agreed on key policy issues. Said to be the major author of the Project New American Century which envisages enslavement of less developed but resource-rich countries of the third world, he together with Richard Perle, the chief of the Defence Policy Planning Board and Zalmay Khalilzad, the current US ambassador to US occupied Afghanistan called the shots.Besides Wolfowitz, Bush is also nominating another neo-conservative John Bolton as the US Ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton had once commented that ‘there is no such thing as the United Nations’.

Non-Saudi residents will be tested for HIV/AIDS when they renew their Iqama through the passport administration to make sure they are not infected with AIDS.


According to Deputy Assistant for Preventive Medicine at the Ministry of Health, Yacoub Al-Mazroo, the ministry also intends to examine foreign workers resident in the Kingdom from countries with a high rate of AIDS, especially from Asia and Africa.


Al-Mazroo said that many AIDS cases of foreigners were discovered after they arrived in the Kingdom, adding that there are few AIDS cases in Saudi Arabia.


This does not apply to those arriving for Haj, Umrah or visiting. Foreigners can have the test done at any health care facility permitted to perform the test and issue a health report.


Positive and suspected cases of the coded samples are then sent to an assigned health facility in Jeddah that would be King Fahd Hospital which would confirm the final test result of the sample and send it to the National Program. That individual would not be issued an iqama or his iqama would not be renewed.

A 30-hectare park built from scratch on what used to be a 500-year-old garbage dump topping one of Cairo’s poorest neighbourhoods is ready for inauguration.


The opening ceremony was presided over by Imam Aga Khan, the 68-year-old spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims who first devised the project more than 20 years ago.


The park, which lies close to Cairo’s landmark Citadel and was financed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, features Andalusian-inspired fountains, rows of palm trees and flowery hills and a stunningly intact 12th century wall. Excavated from under tons of trash and rubble, the Ayyubi wall - named after famous Muslim ruler Salah-al-Din ibn Ayyub - is dotted with 15 towers and boasts several gates. One of the gates, Bab al-Barqia, will serve as one of the park’s entrances, offering a welcome green space in the over-populated metropolis.

The United States has committed “grave violations of human rights” against prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq, the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs has said. The report also called on the government to make clear whether it uses intelligence passed on by other countries that may have been gathered by torturing suspects. “We conclude that United States personnel appear to have committed grave violations of human rights of persons held in detention in various facilities in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan,” the committee wrote in its influential annual report on human rights. “We recommend that the government make it clear to the United States administration, both in public and private, that such treatment of detainees is unacceptable.” The treatment of prisoners at the U.S. military camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the rising threat from terrorism has sparked a heated debate in Britain about torture. Human rights groups have criticised conditions at the camp and interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation or subjecting detainees to extreme temperatures, some of which they say are akin to torture.

Every day at 4 a.m., Wajeeh Nuseibeh walks through the walled Old City of Jerusalem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest shrine in Christendom. Most Christians believe it is the site of the crucifixion, tomb and resurrection of Jesus.


Nuseibeh takes an ancient 12-inch iron key, climbs a small ladder and opens the huge wooden doors. Every evening at nightfall, after three raps of an iron door knocker spaced out over half an hour, Nuseibeh closes up for the night and places the key in safekeeping.


He inherited the job from his father and grandfather, part of a chain stretching back more than 1,300 years. But surprisingly for the doorkeeper of the site of the Crucifixion, Nuseibeh, 55, like his ancestors, is a Muslim. “It goes from father to son, from one generation to the next,” said Nuseibeh, a small, dapper man in a suit and tie, with a dark mustache. Nuseibeh receives $15 every month for his labour, but the ancient honor is worth more to him than the token payment. “I realize there are thousands of people waiting to go into the church and they are waiting for me to open it, and I start to imagine what will happen if the lock will be broken or the key is damaged and I can’t open the door,” he said. But it has never happened in the 20 years since he took over from his father. He hopes that one day his son Obadah, now 21, will step into his footsteps, but it’s not certain. “I know every stone. It is like my home,” he said. “But I go to pray at the Omar Mosque next door.”

In the first move of its kind in the west African country, Nigerian Muslims are planning to build an Islamic housing compound, in an effort to establish an Islamic environment for Muslim families. “The idea of the project came from a number of Muslim civil servants who want to live together with their families in an Islamic environment after they retire,” said Shuaib Salis, chairman of the Lighthouse company, the project executive firm. The Islamic project will include a housing compound, shopping mall, mosque, Arab and Islamic-language schools, foreign language schools, multi-purpose lounge, sporting facilities and parks. The Islamic compound, will be implemented on the Lekki beach in Lagos.