Jeddah, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27 (IINA)
– As part of its efforts to assist Muslims wherever
they may be, but more particularly Muslim minorities and
refugees, the Riyadh-based World Assembly of Muslim Youth
(WAMY) has implemented a number of charitable projects
for the Chechen refugees living in Georgian territories
adjacent to Chechenya.
This was said by Dr. Abdul Wahhab Nurwalli,
the Assistant Secretary-General of WAMY at its office
in Jeddah, who added that the projects included furnishing
and electrification of mosques in three villages that
are accommodating Chechen refugees. WAMY has also appointed
three scholars as Imams and three Muadhins (prayer-callers)
for those mosques.
Dr. Nurwalli also disclosed that WAMY
had also conducted a two-month-long Islamic course that
attracted around 50 Chechen youths to participate. Furthermore,
he said, WAMY has purchased and distributed Islamic books
in Russian, in seven of the refugee camps.
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Brazil: President gives accolade to
Muslim scholar
Brasilia, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27 (IINA)
– The President of Brazil, Fernando Enrique de Mello,
has granted the medal of Rio Branco (First Class) to Dr.
Hilmi Muhammad Ibrahim Nasr, a Muslim scholar and head
of the Arabic and Islamic Studies Department of the University
of Sao Paulo.
The accolade has been given to him in
recognition of his 30-year cultural services and involvement
in the educational and cultural fields. The ceremony was
attended by, among others, Brazil’s Foreign Minister,
senior government officials, the Egyptian Charge d’Affaires,
other members of the Arab Diplomatic Corps, and a large
number of ordinary Muslims living in this country.
Dr. Hilmi, who hails from Egypt, has
lived in Brazil for the last 40 years, and has been active
in Brazil’s cultural and educational life for many
years since. The granting of such an accolade to a Muslim
is clear indication that the Brazilian government and
people do value that contribution that Muslims are making
to the country, despite all the odds that a pitted against
them and the damaging propaganda that has been unleashed
against them, particularly after the 9/11 events in the
United State.
-
Malawi: Muslims lag behind others in
education
Lilongwe, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27 (IINA)
– Official statistics indicate that Muslims account
for 13 percent of the population, though Muslim sources
in the country assert that the Muslim population is in
the region of 33 percent. The same sources had indicated
at the beginning of the last century that Muslims accounted
for between 20 and 25 percent of the population of 10
million at that time.
When the Christian missionaries and
colonialism came to the country in 1830 AD, they started
to educate the people, though the Muslims kept away from
such schools. However, of recent a number of Muslim organizations
have been set up to take care of the educational aspect
of the country’s Muslims, though still the proportion
of educated Muslims is still very low. Even their primary
schools account for only one percent of all the primary
schools.
Another recent statistic shows that
out of 5,000 university students, there are only 65 Muslims,
and only two of them are girls. In fact, very few of Malawi’s
Muslim girls complete primary education.
As far as teachers are concerned, out
of the total of 70,000 teachers, 700 are Muslims, that
is only one percent, and there are no Islamic institutes
in the country that could produce Muslims who could be
groomed for higher positions or considered for higher
studies abroad.
One organization that is trying to do
something to uplift the Muslims educationally is the Zamzam
Islamic Charitable Organization of Malawi, which is trying
to build Islamic schools for the Muslim students, but
the prevailing economic conditions in the country are
not conducive to a good response from the people, unless
they also get assistance and support from their Muslim
brethren in other parts of the world.
-
Tanzania: Teachers benefit from training
course
Dar-es-Salam, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27
(IINA) – A total of 45 Tanzanian Qur’an school
teachers have benefited from a three-week course that
was held here for them, and organized by the Makkah-based
Muslim World League (MWL). The instructors were sent from
Saudi Arabia by the MWL, in coordination with the International
Islamic Relief Organization.
-
Yemen and Iran sign cooperation agreement
Sana’a, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27
(IINA) – Yemen and Iran have signed a cooperation
agreement in the field of education, as provided for in
the pact that was signed in 1992. Yemen’s Minister
of Education, Dr. Fadhl Abu Ghanim, who recently visited
Iran, said that the program would soon enter its implementation
stage, when a delegation from Iran comes to Yemen for
that purpose.
-
Comoro Islands to have college
Moroni, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27 (IINA)
– An Islamic college is to be built here, which
would eventually develop into a university. The college
would be of benefit not only to the people of the Comoro
Islands, but also to the surrounding countries, such as
the Seychelles, Reunion, and Mauritius. Already eight
mosques have been built, and a number of books printed
and distributed, thanks to the generosity of the Riyadh-based
Haramain Charitable Foundation.
-
QCS implements huge relief project in
Palestine
Nablus, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27 (IINA)
– The Qatar Charitable Society’s office in
the Palestine’s West Bank has implemented a huge
relief project, costing US 400,0000. The project covered
the entire West Bank, particularly the built up areas
that are under Israel’s siege. A total of 16,000
packages containing foodstuffs, such as rice, dried milk,
in addition to the cash provided to the families of those
killed in the Intifadha. A total of 50 families benefited
from this handout. More aid is expected to come from this
source.
-
India: Muslim body concerned with girls’
education
Delhi, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27 (IINA)
– The Salihat University is one Muslim educational
institution in India that is closely concerned with the
education of Muslims girls here. It was set up in 1972,
with the objective of providing education to Muslim girls,
and at the moment there are 1,000 girls enrolled, many
of them are from the surrounding areas and are, therefore,
borders. The medium of instruction is Urdu, but the education
that is imparted to the girls is not confined to just
religious studies, for they are also given instruction
in modern secular subjects, such as computing. The university
is now thinking of setting up a medical college for girls.
The institution has all the necessary facilities, such
as banks, restaurants and the like.
-
Actions of a few Muslims cause of Islamophobia,
says scholar
Amman, Jordan, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27
(IINA) – The Deputy Rector of Petra University here
has asserted that some politically motivated Islamic extremist
movements are responsible for the distortion of the image
of Islam and making the West believe that it is its biggest
enemy, and that it wants to revert to the old way of dividing
the world into two opposing camps.
Dr. Fahmi Jad’an told the magazine
HAJ that is published in Makkah, that such extremist groups
have given the world the impression that Islam was terrorizing
power that could destroy all that is opposed to it. Thus
they have stripped Islam of its beauty and its moral uprightness.
He said that the idea of clashes between civilizations
is not just the innovation of the West, but had been espoused
by such Muslim scholars as Maududi and Sayyid Qutb.
The Deputy Rector added that those who
portray Islam as fighting the West and the non-Muslims
have done untold harm to the institutions of Islam. Dr.
Fahmi said that confidence between the Muslim world and
the West, including other faiths, has been shattered,
adding that it now requires decades of time to restore
it.
-
Nigeria: Islamic books distributed
Lagos, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27 (IINA)
– The Makkah Branch of the Riyadh-based World Assembly
of Muslim Youth (WAMY) has sent to Nigeria not less than
8,000 religious books, including 500 copies of the Holy
Qur’an, translated into the Hausa language. This
is part of WAMY’s efforts to spread the word of
God and introduce Islam to the people, said the Assistant
Secretary-General (Jeddah Office), Dr. Abdul Wahhab Nurwalli.
He said that WAMY’s office in Nigeria had implemented
several projects in the country, including the construction
of six mosques at a total cost of SR 640,000, the construction
of the Farouq Educational Complex, at a cost of SR 315,000,
the digging of wells, and the holding of a number of training
courses for Arabic teachers and Imams. Muslims constitute
76 percent of Nigeria’s population of 120 million.
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Saudi Arabia: Donations over SR700 thousand
Riyadh, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27 (IINA)
– The Joint Saudi Committee for the Relief of Kosovo
and Chechenya has been able within the last four months
to collect a total of SR 789,835 for their benefit. In
another development, 90 Chechen refugees left the Saudi
Refugees Camp in Ingushetia, to return to their homes,
in keeping with the High Commission for Refugees program.
The returning refugees were given food rations to last
them a month by the Saudi Red Crescent Society’s
office here. The head of the society’s office, Abdullah
Al-Olayan, added that the refugees were also given tents,
beds, blankets and other essentials, to tidy them over
when they return to their areas. There were a total of
5,000 in Saudi Arabia’s refugee camp in Ingushetia.
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Britain: Police raid mosque
London, Jumad Awwal 17/Jul 27 (IINA)
– Last Thursday, a contingent of the British police
raided the West Midlands Mosque here. The aim was to arrest
an Afghani family who were in Britain illegality, though
had asked for political asylum.
But instead of asking for permission
for entering the mosque, the police forced their way in
by breaking a door, in order to arrest an Afghan known
as Farid, and his wife and two children.
One of the area’s Muslim elders,
Sheikh Syed Aziz Basha, said that the use of force was
not called for and an irresponsible act on the part of
the police. He said the raid took place soon after the
worshippers in the mosque had finished their Dawn Prayers,
and were still inside the mosque, which means that the
police could have asked for permission to enter.
But this practice of taking refuge in
mosques has been the practice of many law-breakers, something
that has forced the police in several parts of the world
to use unconventional means in bringing such people to
book.
U.S. Anti-Terror Campaign Turns into
Terrorism: Kadhafi
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi slammed
as "insane" Tuesday, July 23, U.S. threats of
military action against Iraq, warning they were reducing
the worldwide anti-terror campaign to sheer terrorism.
"The world is now living in terror and the fight
against terrorism has itself been transformed into terrorism,"
he said....
U.S. Military to Investigate Afghan Civilian
Deaths
After the deadly raid on July 1 that
has strained ties between Washington and Kabul, U.S. military
investigators are to travel to a village in Afghanistan
later this week to try to explain why an American AC-130
gunship killed at least 48 civilians in a bombing raid
on a wedding party.
U.S. Calls Israeli Raid on Gaza Strip “Heavy-Handed”
U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday, July 23, criticized
an Israeli raid on the Gaza Strip the day before, calling
the attack “heavy-handed action” that “does
not contribute to peace.” The U.S. said that “Israel
has to be mindful of the consequences of its actions.”
In a message to FIFA (International football governing
body) Chief Joseph S. Blatter, U.S. President George W.
Bush sought drastic changes to the world’s first
and most popular game, to make it more like “American
soccer”. Analysts, however, called the move “a
silly joke” raising fears Bush may be serious
U.S. Anti-Terror Campaign Turns into
Terrorism: Kadhafi
U.S. Military to Investigate Afghan Civilian
Deaths 
U.S. Calls Israeli Raid on Gaza Strip “Heavy-Handed”
Critic: Bush Wants to Americanize Football
