VOICE OF GLOBAL UMMAH
Volume 58, December 14, 2008
St. Louis, Missouri
Editors: Mohamed & Rashida Ziauddin
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful
CONTENTS:
(b) Congrats to our Egyptian Sister's Victory in terms of her perseverance to wear hijab at her work as a TV anchorwoman which was finally granted.
(1) Child marriage and divorce (of 9 year old) in Yemen
(2) 8 year old Saudi child files for divorce
(d) (1)Unusual Dutch Man
(2) Vargo, First Dog in Mosque Area(a) MUXLIM PAL:
Muslim-friendly virtual world goes live
Dec 10, 2008
Dec 10, 2008
"A trial version of the world's first Muslim-friendly virtual world was launched on Tuesday, where users can create an online persona, design their own rooms, buy virtual items and interact with others.
Called Muxlim Pal and created by the Finnish-based company Muxlim.com, the English-language site caters primarily to Muslims living in western countries who long to reconnect with other Muslims and Muslim culture.
"Muxlim Pal is just another channel for our users to socialise, have fun and express themselves using social media in a safe and friendly atmosphere," Muxlim chief executive Mohamed El-Fatatry, 23, told AFP.
On Muxlim Pal, which is free of charge to join, users can shop for clothes for their avatar at the mall, hang out at the beach cafe, pray at the mosque or go to concerts.
What makes Muxlim Pal different from other popular websites such as Second Life is that content portraying violence, drugs, sexual references or profanity is not allowed.
Users can flag content they find unsuitable and inform community managers, who will delete material after it has been flagged a number of times.
The absence of obscene material is not only out of respect for Muslim values, but also to create a family-friendly site.
"We are not trying to segregate anybody; we are trying to build a platform for Muslims to have a voice and dialogue with others," El-Fatatry said.
He said he believed Muslims who live in countries where they are in the minority have a greater need to express themselves and share content than those who live in countries where they are in the majority.
"In majority countries every restaurant is a halal restaurant, so you don't need to go online to find things like that," he said.
El-Fatatry discovered young Muslims were yearning for online content relating to their lifestyle after he moved to Finland five years ago from Dubai and set up a website.
"When (video-sharing site) YouTube started, I collected a number of Muslim songs and video clips from there and put them on a static page. In a matter of three days, that single page received more traffic than my whole website for one year," he said.
On Muxlim.com, visitors can read Al-Jazeera news, listen to the Qur'an and chat with people, among other things.
The site has about 1,5 million visitors per month from 190 different countries. Half of the visitors are from the United States.
"The US and the UK are about 70 percent of our market, so we will not be looking at any other markets for the time being," El-Fatatry said.
El-Fatatry pointed out it was easier to create revenues in countries with high Internet adoption and widespread online payment methods.
"This allows us to make money from those users and to sustain the company. Later we will look into (Muslim) majority countries as well," he explained.
A typical Muxlim.com user is a woman in her mid-20s who's looking for entertainment content online.
While 98 percent of Muxlim.com's users are Muslim, the company believes the number of non-Muslims will increase in the future.
Muxlim Pal is the company's latest attempt to create new income channels, in addition to advertising, a major source of revenue.
On Muxlim Pal, users can purchase coins and use them to buy clothing, furniture and other items for their avatar.
A number of Muslim countries are known to block access to some Internet sites, but El-Fatatry said he was not concerned about the issue.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Tehran blocks the YouTube site in Iran because it considers some of the content immoral, while Saudi Arabia has set up a commission to filter the Internet.
"Blocking is more trivial than people think. It is based on a fully automated system that categorises all Internet sites into categories and then whole categories are removed," he explained.
"Any company can run into that, but not every company knows how to get themselves off that. We happen to know."
Despite the current global financial crisis, El-Fatatry said he was confident Muxlim was solid and said the company planned to double the number of employees next year.
"Other companies are firing people; we aim to be 25-30 people in the end of 2009," he said.
The company plans to launch the full version of the virtual world next year after tweaking the trial product with help from users". - AFP
Called Muxlim Pal and created by the Finnish-based company Muxlim.com, the English-language site caters primarily to Muslims living in western countries who long to reconnect with other Muslims and Muslim culture.
"Muxlim Pal is just another channel for our users to socialise, have fun and express themselves using social media in a safe and friendly atmosphere," Muxlim chief executive Mohamed El-Fatatry, 23, told AFP.
On Muxlim Pal, which is free of charge to join, users can shop for clothes for their avatar at the mall, hang out at the beach cafe, pray at the mosque or go to concerts.
What makes Muxlim Pal different from other popular websites such as Second Life is that content portraying violence, drugs, sexual references or profanity is not allowed.
Users can flag content they find unsuitable and inform community managers, who will delete material after it has been flagged a number of times.
The absence of obscene material is not only out of respect for Muslim values, but also to create a family-friendly site.
"We are not trying to segregate anybody; we are trying to build a platform for Muslims to have a voice and dialogue with others," El-Fatatry said.
He said he believed Muslims who live in countries where they are in the minority have a greater need to express themselves and share content than those who live in countries where they are in the majority.
"In majority countries every restaurant is a halal restaurant, so you don't need to go online to find things like that," he said.
El-Fatatry discovered young Muslims were yearning for online content relating to their lifestyle after he moved to Finland five years ago from Dubai and set up a website.
"When (video-sharing site) YouTube started, I collected a number of Muslim songs and video clips from there and put them on a static page. In a matter of three days, that single page received more traffic than my whole website for one year," he said.
On Muxlim.com, visitors can read Al-Jazeera news, listen to the Qur'an and chat with people, among other things.
The site has about 1,5 million visitors per month from 190 different countries. Half of the visitors are from the United States.
"The US and the UK are about 70 percent of our market, so we will not be looking at any other markets for the time being," El-Fatatry said.
El-Fatatry pointed out it was easier to create revenues in countries with high Internet adoption and widespread online payment methods.
"This allows us to make money from those users and to sustain the company. Later we will look into (Muslim) majority countries as well," he explained.
A typical Muxlim.com user is a woman in her mid-20s who's looking for entertainment content online.
While 98 percent of Muxlim.com's users are Muslim, the company believes the number of non-Muslims will increase in the future.
Muxlim Pal is the company's latest attempt to create new income channels, in addition to advertising, a major source of revenue.
On Muxlim Pal, users can purchase coins and use them to buy clothing, furniture and other items for their avatar.
A number of Muslim countries are known to block access to some Internet sites, but El-Fatatry said he was not concerned about the issue.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Tehran blocks the YouTube site in Iran because it considers some of the content immoral, while Saudi Arabia has set up a commission to filter the Internet.
"Blocking is more trivial than people think. It is based on a fully automated system that categorises all Internet sites into categories and then whole categories are removed," he explained.
"Any company can run into that, but not every company knows how to get themselves off that. We happen to know."
Despite the current global financial crisis, El-Fatatry said he was confident Muxlim was solid and said the company planned to double the number of employees next year.
"Other companies are firing people; we aim to be 25-30 people in the end of 2009," he said.
The company plans to launch the full version of the virtual world next year after tweaking the trial product with help from users". - AFP
(B) CONGRATS TO OUR EGYPTIAN SISTER GHADA EL-TAWIL'S VICTORY IN TERMS OF HER PERSEVERANCE TO WEAR HIJAB AT HER WORK AS A TV ANCHORWOMAN WHICH WAS FINALLY GRANTED.
www.news.bbc.co.uk
Egyptian television presenter Ghada El Tawil was allowed back on air last week after a six-year absence, in which she won the legal right to wear an Islamic headscarf, known as hijab, on screen. She tells BBC News about her fight.
Ghada El Tawil presenting her programme
Ghada can wear what she likes on screen as long as it is doesn't look 'strange'
I have waited six years for this moment - to present television wearing my hijab.
I only started wearing it in 2002. The rule is, when a girl gets her first period, she has to cover her hair. I didn't - but sometimes you don't do many things you should.
I have waited six years for this moment - to present television wearing my hijab.
I only started wearing it in 2002. The rule is, when a girl gets her first period, she has to cover her hair. I didn't - but sometimes you don't do many things you should.
But as the years passed, I began to feel I wanted to do what God wanted. I struggled for about a year, before deciding to wear it.
More and more women are wearing the hijab, especially here. Only one or two in 10 Alexandrian women are not covered, so I was part of a wider movement of change. But I don't think I was aware of that at the time.
Cairo is different, because it is such a big, cosmopolitan city.
More and more women are wearing the hijab, especially here. Only one or two in 10 Alexandrian women are not covered, so I was part of a wider movement of change. But I don't think I was aware of that at the time.
Cairo is different, because it is such a big, cosmopolitan city.
Anyway, when I put the hijab on in February 2002, I was banned from being on screen.
There have been many cases like this - female presenters losing their jobs when they want to wear the hijab on air. A colleague, Hala el-Malki and I were the first to take it to court.
We got two rulings in our favour, the most recent in July 2005. It said we could wear what we liked on screen so long as it wasn't 'strange'. It's taken until now for our employers [Alexandria's Channel 5, a state channel] to apply it.
There are now five of us wearing the hijab on screen.
I don't know for sure why the management doesn't like us wearing it. Maybe they thought we belonged to a very religious group, or something. They never gave us a proper reason.
But the reality is, most women here cover their hair. I come from Alexandria and as a presenter, I now reflect and represent my audience more closely than before.
I present a discussion program focusing on social issues, it's mainly aimed at women. On my return to the program last week, so many people congratulated me in live phone calls on air!
However, my employers still haven't let me return to my other job of reading the English-language news bulletins. I did this job for 12 years before I was stopped - but now they said I needed to pass another test. I refused to take it on principle.
When I covered my hair, I didn't lose my ability to read the news. I can't see the point of the ban, can you? To let me do one of my previous jobs, but not the other.
I hope I will win this next case, too".(1)
"Many Egyptian women choose to wear the veil in public. She says some 75% of Muslim women in Egypt wear the hijab and so the presenters are not trying to do anything out of the ordinary and there is certainly no political agenda.
"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," she said.
Human rights organizations say the presenters have a right to wear the veil in exercise of their personal freedom.
During the past four years more than 30 female anchors working in state TV are thought to have chosen the veil at the expense of their jobs.
But if these two pioneers, Ms Malki and Ms Tawil, eventually return to the screen with their hijabs, the state broadcaster could find many others wanting to follow their example" (2)
(c) UMMAH SHOULD CONDEMN CHILD MARRIAGES
Child marriage and divorce in Yemen
www.news.bbc.co.uk. Oct 6, 2008
By Jenny Cuffe
BBC World Service
A narrow path leads up from the mountain town of Jibla, through century-old houses, and turns into a mud track before reaching the door of Arwa's home. Arwa, 9. Arwa is making history by requesting a divorce aged just nine
The nine year old child lives with her parents and six brothers and sisters in a humble, two-roomed house overlooking the mosque built by her namesake, Queen Arwa, who ruled Yemen 900 years ago.
She knows nothing of wealth and power but, in her own way, she has helped make history.
Arwa is the youngest of three Yemeni girls who recently went to court complaining they were married against their will and asking for divorce - an astonishing display of defiance that has prompted the government to review its law on early marriage.
The child's dark eyes shine from a pale face framed by her black headscarf. Her expression is eloquent yet she struggles to find words for what she's suffered.Earlier this year, her father announced she was to be married, ignoring her tears of protest. She claims to have forgotten her husband's name and all she will say about him is that he seemed tall and old.
Coming in from the street where he's been digging drains, Abdul Mohammed Ali takes up the story. He describes how a stranger, a man in his mid forties, approached him in the market asking if he knew of any marriageable girls.
Jibla village in Yemen has been in the news since Arwa's request
After visiting their home and seeing Arwa and her 15-year-old sister, he opted for the younger child. Abdul Ali says the man promised he would wait for the girl to reach puberty before calling her to his house but then changed his mind and came to live with them.
So why did he sell his daughter to a stranger?
"He gave me 30,000 rial ($150, £90) and promised another 400,000 ($2,000). I was really in need of money and thought it was a solution for the family," he explains.
For seven months, Arwa's husband shared the small room where the family eat, play and sleep.
When Arwa fought off his advances, she was beaten. The torment only came to an end when her husband and father quarrelled and Abdul Ali gave her permission to seek outside help.
At this point in the narrative, she finds her voice again, describing how she went looking for a neighbour who could lend her money for the journey to court where the judge took pity on her and granted her freedom.
A medical examination showed that she had been sexually molested but was still technically a virgin
Arwa's audacity in seeking a divorce was inspired by the example of Nujood, another young girl from the capital, Sanaa, who has become a national celebrity.
A third girl, Reem is still waiting for the court's decision and says her two ambitions are to get a divorce and go to college.
Married at 12, she describes the moment when her 30-year-old husband insisted on sex. When she resisted, he choked and bit her and dragged her by the hair, overwhelming her with force. Reem, aged 12 wants a divorce and then a college education
She was imprisoned for 11 days in his house and tried to kill herself with a kitchen knife before being rescued by her mother.
Although Yemen has a law stating that 15 is the marriageable age, it is frequently flouted, particularly in poor rural areas where society is run along tribal lines.
Members of Parliament have recently been debating an amendment raising the age limit to 18, but progress has ground to a halt in the face of strong opposition from conservatives.
Bitter fight ahead
Yemen's Minister for Social Affairs, Professor Amat al-Razzak Hammed, recognises that the government needs to compromise and would personally opt for a legal age of 16.
Arwa and her father Abdul Ali. Arwa hopes that money will not tempt her father to marry her off again
She emphasises the importance of a legal framework enabling courts to punish fathers who marry their children off early and officials who sign the marriage contracts, and says the government has consulted Islamic scholars to ensure that it can be done in accordance with Sharia.
With parliamentary elections next year, President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government may be reluctant to alienate the growing forces of Islamic fundamentalism, so women's rights campaigners are preparing for a bitter fight. They are concerned that, with the global economic down-turn, more families will be under pressure to sacrifice their young daughters.
At her home in Jibla, Arwa is putting the past behind her and returning to childish games of hide and seek in the narrow passageways near her home.
But, without a firm lead from government, her father Abdul Ali may be tempted a second time to take money for his daughter's hand in marriage, curtailing her childhood once and for all.
After visiting their home and seeing Arwa and her 15-year-old sister, he opted for the younger child. Abdul Ali says the man promised he would wait for the girl to reach puberty before calling her to his house but then changed his mind and came to live with them.
So why did he sell his daughter to a stranger?
"He gave me 30,000 rial ($150, £90) and promised another 400,000 ($2,000). I was really in need of money and thought it was a solution for the family," he explains.
For seven months, Arwa's husband shared the small room where the family eat, play and sleep.
When Arwa fought off his advances, she was beaten. The torment only came to an end when her husband and father quarrelled and Abdul Ali gave her permission to seek outside help.
At this point in the narrative, she finds her voice again, describing how she went looking for a neighbour who could lend her money for the journey to court where the judge took pity on her and granted her freedom.
A medical examination showed that she had been sexually molested but was still technically a virgin
Arwa's audacity in seeking a divorce was inspired by the example of Nujood, another young girl from the capital, Sanaa, who has become a national celebrity.
A third girl, Reem is still waiting for the court's decision and says her two ambitions are to get a divorce and go to college.
Married at 12, she describes the moment when her 30-year-old husband insisted on sex. When she resisted, he choked and bit her and dragged her by the hair, overwhelming her with force. Reem, aged 12 wants a divorce and then a college education
She was imprisoned for 11 days in his house and tried to kill herself with a kitchen knife before being rescued by her mother.
Although Yemen has a law stating that 15 is the marriageable age, it is frequently flouted, particularly in poor rural areas where society is run along tribal lines.
Members of Parliament have recently been debating an amendment raising the age limit to 18, but progress has ground to a halt in the face of strong opposition from conservatives.
Bitter fight ahead
Yemen's Minister for Social Affairs, Professor Amat al-Razzak Hammed, recognises that the government needs to compromise and would personally opt for a legal age of 16.
Arwa and her father Abdul Ali. Arwa hopes that money will not tempt her father to marry her off again
She emphasises the importance of a legal framework enabling courts to punish fathers who marry their children off early and officials who sign the marriage contracts, and says the government has consulted Islamic scholars to ensure that it can be done in accordance with Sharia.
With parliamentary elections next year, President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government may be reluctant to alienate the growing forces of Islamic fundamentalism, so women's rights campaigners are preparing for a bitter fight. They are concerned that, with the global economic down-turn, more families will be under pressure to sacrifice their young daughters.
At her home in Jibla, Arwa is putting the past behind her and returning to childish games of hide and seek in the narrow passageways near her home.
But, without a firm lead from government, her father Abdul Ali may be tempted a second time to take money for his daughter's hand in marriage, curtailing her childhood once and for all.
8 year old Saudi child 'files for divorce'
A court in Saudi Arabia is reported to be preparing to hear a plea for divorce from an eight-year-old girl who has been married off to a man in his 50s.
The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan said the girl had been married off to the man by her father without her knowledge.
The child's mother is thought to be pushing for the marriage to be annulled - though the father opposes the move.
In April, a court in neighbouring Yemen annulled the arranged marriage of another eight-year-old girl.
She had been married to a 28-year-old man.
Child-protection groups say children are often given away in return for hefty dowries, or as a result of old customs in which a father promises his infant daughters and sons to cousins out of a belief that marriage will protect them from illicit relationships.
Activists have called for an end to the practice.
POINT OF DEBATE:
(ED NOTE: As we discussed in the previous issue regarding dealing with difference of opinion, we challenge the readers to express their opinions which could be on opposing sides by drawing upon the gems of Islam on below two topics. Most of us know the obvious answer for the below unusual Dutchman from an Islamic perspective to the below practice, but it does not hurt to hear the minority opinion on below topics)
(a) UNUSUAL DUTCH MAN:
A Dutch man has earned a reputation as Europe's most committed sperm donor after fathering 46 children without having sex.
The tourism guide, who was until recently single but has now started a long-distance relationship, has never taken any payment for his services.
"I still meet some of the women and have friendships with them," Mr Houben, from Maastricht in the Netherlands, said.
"I do it because I know how hard it is for people who desperately want a child. Also going through fertility clinics can be very time-consuming and costly for them.(CURRENT.COM)
(b) Vargo, first dog in mosque area
By Elham Asaad Buaras
Acknowledgements:
(1) Nov 04, 2008 "Egyptian Life on TV, in a veil" (www.news.bbc.co.uk)
(2) April 17, 2007 "Egyptian Anchorwoman battle for hijab" Ranyah Sabry, BBC News, CairoFeel free to e-mail your responses: amyusuf786@yahoo.com
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