VOICE OF GLOBAL UMMAH

Volume 60, January 4, 2009
St. Louis, Missouri

Editors: Mohamed & Rashida Ziauddin

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful

CONTENTS:

(1) ISSUES PERTAINING TO GLOBAL UMMAH:

Palestinian mourners carry the body of 4-year-old girl, Haya Hamdan, killed with her sister, Lama, 12, in background, in an Israeli missile strike, during her funeral in town of Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008.

(a) ISRAEL'S CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
(b)AL-QAIDA'S NO. 2 LEADER DOESN'T SPEAK FOR MUSLIMS
(c) EX-GUANTANAMO DETAINEE SERIOUSLY ILL IN JAIL IN RUSSIA
(d) NIGERIA: PREVENT FURTHER BLOODSHED IN LOS : INVESTIGATE KILLINGS AND END DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES


(2) ISSUES PERTAINING TO AMERICAN UMMAH:

(a) LOCAL FBI CHIEF REBUILDS TRUST WITH MUSLIM LEADERS
(b) US MUSLIMS WORRY ABOUT NEW FEDERAL RULES

(c) SIKH MUSICIANS PROTEST ORDER TO LEAVE PLANE

(d) 2009 IS GOING GREEN FOR SHURA COUNCIL: GLOBAL UMMAH SHOULD GO GREEN IN ALL POSSIBLE AND REALISTIC WAYS

(3) INTERFAITH ISSUES:

PRAYER ROOMS SHOULD BE OPENED IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS SAYS CHURCH LEADERS

(4) FREEDOM OF SPEECH ISSUE:

(a) MARINE SUES TO DISPLAY ANTI-ISLAMIC DE-CALS (CAR BUMPER STICKERS)
(b) Face book page glorifying (Muslim) massacre shut down

(5) CHILDREN:

UNITED NATIONS CALL FOR RELEASE OF CHILD SOLDIERS

(6) WOMEN:

BELOW (6a and 6 b) ARE EXAMPLES OF ABUSE OF ISLAMIC LAWS AND VALUES BY UNSCRUPULOUS MUSLIM MEN. (Malaysia has banned divorce by SMS, e-mail or fax).

(a) NEPAL: MUSLIM WOMEN IN THE STREETS, AGAINST "TALAK" OR ISLAMIC DIVORCE.

(b) INDIA: DIVORCE BY E-MAIL SPARKS DEBATE.

(c) IRAN: WOMEN ONLY PARK OPENED IN TEHRAN - "Women's Paradise"

(d) CONGO - THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE ON EARTH FOR WOMEN. "Mass Rape in Congo: A Crime Against Humanity"

(e) UNITED STATES: THE ONLINE GYM FOR MUSLIM WOMEN.

(f) UNITED STATES: FEMALE MAJORITY TO CONTROL NEW HAMPSHIRE SENATE

(g) SAUDI ARABIA: (Certain) Foreign women married to Saudis abuse the system,

(1) ISSUES PERTAINING TO GLOBAL UMMAH

(1 a) ISRAEL'S CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY:
(Condensed version by Chris Hedges, Truthdig)

Israel's siege of Gaza rivals the worst crimes carried out at the height of South African apartheid.

Israel’s siege of Gaza, largely unseen by the outside world because of Jerusalem’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid workers, reporters and photographers access to Gaza, rivals the most egregious crimes carried out at the height of apartheid by the South African regime.

A wounded Palestinian boy is carried into
the Al-Shifa hospital earlier today
Photo: GETTY (telegraph.co:uk)

It comes close to the horrors visited on Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs. It has disturbing echoes of the Nazi ghettos of Lodz and Warsaw.

“This is a stain on what is left of Israeli morality,” I was told by Richard N. Veits, the former U.S. ambassador to Jordan who led a delegation from the U.S. Council for the National Interest Foundation to Gaza to meet Hamas leaders this past summer. “I am almost breathless discussing this subject. It is so myopic. Washington, of course, is a handmaiden to all this.

A Palestinian nurse treats Ismail Hamdan, 10 who was wounded in a recent Israeli air strike, and later died of his wounds, at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

The Israeli manipulation of a population in this manner is comparable to some of the crimes that took place against civilian populations fifty years ago.”

The U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, former Princeton University law professor Richard Falk, calls what Israel is doing to the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza “a crime against humanity.” Falk, who is Jewish, has condemned the collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza as “a flagrant and massive violation of international humanitarian law as laid down in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” He has asked for “the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation, and determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law.”

(Gaza: Mustafa Hassan, Medecins Sans Frontieres. Head Quarters: Switzerland)

Falk, while condemning the rocket attacks by the militant group Hamas, which he points out are also criminal violations of international law, goes on to say that “such Palestinian behavior does not legalize Israel’s imposition of a collective punishment of a life- and health-threatening character on the people of Gaza, and should not distract the U.N. or international society from discharging their fundamental moral and legal duty to render protection to the Palestinian people.”

A medic carries a Palestinian girl after an Israeli missile strike on a house
in Gaza. Photo: Mohammed Salem, Reuters, 1 March 2008.

“It is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that each day poses the entire 1.5 million Gazans to an unspeakable ordeal, to a struggle to survive in terms of their health,” Falk said when I reached him by phone in California shortly before he left for Israel. “This is an increasingly precarious condition.


HEALTH AND MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IMPACTING GAZAN CHILDREN:

A recent study reports that 46 percent of all Gazan children suffer from acute anemia. There are reports that the sonic booms associated with Israeli overflights have caused widespread deafness, especially among children. Gazan children need thousands of hearing aids. Malnutrition is extremely high in a number of different dimensions and affects 75 percent of Gazans. There are widespread mental disorders, especially among young people without the will to live. Over 50 percent of Gazan children under the age of 12 have been found to have no will to live.” The statistics gathered on children—half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 17—are increasingly grim. About 45 percent of children in Gaza have iron deficiency from a lack of fruit and vegetables, and 18 percent have stunted growth.

Gaza now spends 12 hours a day without power, which can be a death sentence to the severely ill in hospitals. There are few drugs and little medicine, including no cancer or cystic fibrosis medication. Hospitals have generators but often lack fuel. Medical equipment, including one of Gaza’s three CT scanners, has been destroyed by power surges and fluctuations. Medical staff cannot control the temperature of incubators for newborns. And Israel has revoked most exit visas, meaning some of those who need specialized care, including cancer patients and those in need of kidney dialysis, have died. Of the 230 Gazans estimated to have died last year because they were denied proper medical care, several spent their final hours at Israeli crossing points where they were refused entry into Israel.

“It is macabre,” Falk said. “I don’t know of anything that exactly fits this situation. People have been referring to the Warsaw ghetto as the nearest analog in modern times.”

“There is no structure of an occupation that endured for decades and involved this kind of oppressive circumstances,” the rapporteur added. “The magnitude, the deliberateness, the violations of international humanitarian law, the impact on the health, lives and survival and the overall conditions warrant the characterization of a crime against humanity. This occupation is the direct intention by the Israeli military and civilian authorities. They are responsible and should be held accountable.”

“This is a crime of survival,” Falk said of the rocket attacks. “Israel has put the Gazans in a set of circumstances where they either have to accept whatever is imposed on them or resist in any way available to them. That is a horrible dilemma to impose upon a people. This does not alleviate the Palestinians, and Gazans in particular, for accountability for doing these acts involving rocket fire, but it also imposes some responsibility on Israel for creating these Circumstances.”

Israel seeks to break the will of the Palestinians to resist. The Israeli government has Jewish settlements on the West Bank is an effort to thwart the possibility of a two-state solution by gobbling up vast tracts of Palestinian real estate. Israel also appears to want to thrust the impoverished Gaza Strip onto Egypt. There are now dozens of tunnels, the principal means for food and goods, connecting Gaza to Egypt. Israel permits the tunnels to operate, most likely as part of an effort to further cut Gaza off from Israel.

“Israel, all along, has not been prepared to enter into diplomatic process that gives the Palestinians a viable state,” Falk said. “They [the Israelis] feel time is on their side. They feel they can create enough facts on the ground so people will come to the conclusion a viable state cannot emerge.”

The use of terror and hunger to break a hostile population is one of the oldest forms of warfare. I watched the Bosnian Serbs employ the same tactic in Sarajevo. Those who orchestrate such sieges do not grasp the terrible rage born of long humiliation, indiscriminate violence and abuse. A father or a mother whose child dies because of a lack of vaccines or proper medical care does not forget. A boy whose ill grandmother dies while detained at an Israel checkpoint does not forget. All who endure humiliation, abuse and the murder of family members do not forget. This rage becomes a virus within those who, eventually, stumble out into the daylight. Is it any wonder that 71 percent of children interviewed at a school in Gaza recently said they wanted to be a “martyr”?

The Israelis in Gaza, like the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, are foolishly breeding the next generation of militants and Islamic radicals. Jihadists, enraged by the injustices done by Israel and the United States, seek to carry out reciprocal acts of savagery, even at the cost of their own lives. The violence unleashed on Palestinian children will, one day, be the violence unleashed on Israeli children. This is the tragedy of Gaza. This is the tragedy of Israel. (Chris Hedges, alternet.org)

(1 b) AL-QAIDA'S NO. 2 LEADER DOESN'T SPEAK FOR MUSLIMS
Detroit News, 11/28/08

In the wake of Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri's speech against America and President-elect Barack Obama, I'd like to make it extremely clear that al-Qaida does not speak for Muslims ("Al-Qaida's No. 2 insults Obama," Nov. 20).

From Senegal to Indonesia, Muslims have celebrated Obama's victory. Moreover, American Muslims overwhelmingly supported the president-elect -- 90 percent, according to a post-election poll conducted by the American Muslim Taskforce.

It is quite evident that Al-Qaida is worried that its old talking points of painting America as a racist imperial power may not persuade a fringe pool of potential new recruits to wage terror against a nation that has elected a president who is the son of a Kenyan (Muslim) with the middle name of the Prophet Muhammad's (SAW) grandson. Muslims around the globe view Obama's election as a clear sign that America has taken a big step toward the fulfillment of its principle of racial equality. Hopefully, this will translate into a more brotherly, not paternal, relationship between America and the so-called Third World.

Al-Zawahiri used the race card by calling Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "house slaves," while twisting the words of civil rights leader El-Hajj Malik Shabazz -- also known as Malcolm X. Al-Zawahiri endorses the slaughter of women and children and suicide bombings of mosques in which fellow Muslims pray, so his usage of racial slurs is not surprising.

Malcolm X, who has been honored with a U.S. postage stamp, never endorsed the mass murder of civilians and attacks upon houses of worship, acts that Al-Qaida commits with frequency. In fact, at the end of his life, Malcolm X vigorously preached the Islamic teaching of racial equality and respect for the family of man.

Dawud Walid
Executive Director
Council on American Islamic Relations -- Michigan
Southfield

(1 c) Russia: Ex-Guantanamo Detainee Seriously Ill in Jail. Health Deteriorates During Lengthy Russian Detention
December 2, 2008

"Kudaev's case shows how vulnerable former detainees from Guantanamo are to abusive treatment back home. As US President-elect Barack Obama considers how to close Guantanamo Bay, the experience of people like Rasul Kudaev should be taken into account - and never repeated".

Carroll Bogert, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Moscow, December 2, 2008 - The health of a former Guantanamo detainee has declined alarmingly in a Russian detention facility, and he should be given immediate access to an independent medical examination and appropriate treatment, Human Rights Watch said today.

The former Guantanamo detainee, Rasul Kudaev, has been held for more than three years in pretrial detention in Nalchik, a city in southern Russia, accused of participating in an October 2005 armed uprising against the local government. He was severely tortured in custody. Human Rights Watch urged that Kudaev's lawyer be present during any medical examination.

"Rasul Kudaev has not been convicted of any crime, but prison authorities are putting his life at risk by letting his health collapse," said Carroll Bogert, associate director of Human Rights Watch. "The Russian government must get him decent medical treatment immediately."

Kudaev is one of seven Russian citizens whom the US government sent back from Guantanamo to Russia in 2004 despite their fears of being tortured and ill-treated back home. Human Rights Watch detailed their harassment and mistreatment by Russian authorities in a 2007 report "The Stamp of Guantanamo". It is a violation of the Convention against Torture, as well as other US and international laws, to involuntarily return people to a country where they are in danger of being tortured.

Kudaev's condition has deteriorated markedly over the last several weeks. Kudaev's mother and his lawyer told Human Rights Watch that Kudaev is currently suffering liver failure exacerbated by poor conditions, including inedible food, in detention. The skin on the right side of his back has hardened, the whites of his eyes are deep yellow, and he has trouble walking due to pain. In mid-November, Kudaev and his lawyer requested a medical examination. Prison authorities agreed to the exam but refused to allow it to be conducted by an independent doctor. They pledged to release all the medical records and photos taken during the medical examination, yet they barred Kudaev's lawyer from being present at his client's medical exam. The exam has not yet been scheduled.

(1 d) Nigeria: Prevent Further Bloodshed in Jos: Investigate Killings and End Discriminatory Policies
December 1, 2008

This latest outbreak of shocking violence should come as no surprise to the Nigerian authorities. It is a direct result of the government's failure to anticipate the level of ethnic and religious tension in Plateau State over the recent election, much less to address the underlying causes.

Georgette Gagnon - African Director of HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

(Lagos, December 1, 2008) - The Nigerian government should investigate and prosecute those responsible for killing up to 400 people during several recent days of violence in the city of Jos, Human Rights Watch said today.

The federal government should immediately establish an independent inquiry to find out who sponsored and carried out the killings, including any members of the security forces who appear to have responded to violence with disproportionate use of force. The government should also take concrete steps to end the discriminatory policies that treat certain groups as second-class citizens and that lie at the root of this violence.

The violence in Jos, the capital of Plateau State in central Nigeria, began early on the morning of November 28, 2008, following a disputed local election in which supporters of the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party accused the governing People's Democratic Party of rigging the election results. Over the next three days, clashes between rival Muslims and Christians, some of whom on both sides were armed with firearms and machetes, left several hundred people dead, according to local sources in Jos. There was also widespread destruction in the town as mobs burned down homes, mosques, and churches. Thousands of residents have been forced to flee their homes.

Human Rights Watch called on the Nigerian security forces to abide by the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials in carrying out their duties. State security forces are required to apply nonviolent means as far as possible before resorting to the use of force, and where lawful use of force is unavoidable, restraint is to be used at all times to minimize damage and injury and to respect and preserve human life. Any order authorizing indiscriminate use of violence by security forces, such as "shoot-on-sight" orders, would violate these principles. Human Rights Watch called on Governor Jonah Jang to withdraw the order of November 29, which appears to authorize such use of force.

Nigeria is deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines. More than 12,000 people have died in religious or ethnic clashes since the end of military rule in 1999. In Plateau State, an unprecedented outbreak of violence in Jos claimed as many as 1,000 lives in September 2001. More than 700 people were killed in May 2004 in clashes in the town of Yelwa in the southern part of Plateau State.

Nigeria is deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines. More than 12,000 people have died in religious or ethnic clashes since the end of military rule in 1999. In Plateau State, an unprecedented outbreak of violence in Jos claimed as many as 1,000 lives in September 2001. More than 700 people were killed in May 2004 in clashes in the town of Yelwa in the southern part of Plateau State.

Government policies that discriminate against "non-indigenes" - people who cannot trace their ancestry to the original inhabitants of an area - underlie many of these conflicts. State and local governments throughout Nigeria have enacted such policies, denying those designated "non-indigenes" access to some of the most important avenues of socio-economic mobility. Non-indigenes are openly denied the right to compete for government jobs and academic scholarships, while state-run universities subject non-indigenes to discriminatory admissions policies and higher fees. In Jos, members of the largely-Muslim Hausa ethnic group are classified as non-indigenes despite many having resided there for several generations.

Human Rights Watch has called on the federal government to pass legislation prohibiting government discrimination against non-indigenes in all matters that are not purely cultural or related to traditional political institutions. Federal and state authorities should also conduct a public education campaign focusing on the rights that go with Nigerian citizenship and the need to end discrimination against non-indigenes. Instead of taking steps to combat this discrimination, government policies continue to legitimize and reinforce it.

"These discriminatory policies relegate millions of Nigerians to the status of second-class citizens and fuel the flames of ethnic and religious violence, which have often erupted during elections," Gagnon said.

(2) ISSUES PERTAINING TO AMERICAN UMMAH:

(2 a) LOCAL FBI CHIEF REBUILDS TRUST WITH MUSLIM LEADERS
Stephen Magagnini, Sacramento Bee, 12/1/2008

For months, Sacramento's top FBI agent kept a Muslim prayer rug in his office. It was for Imam Mohamed Abdul Azeez, religious leader of the SALAM Islamic Center in Sacramento, who attended a citizens' academy with Drew Parenti at the FBI office.

Parenti hasn't converted to Islam. He's been trying to convert Muslim leaders who might be suspicious of his agency after 9/11 and the Lodi terrorism case. And, after years of distrust, Azeez and other local Muslims believe they have found a friend in Parenti.

The local FBI chief has visited several of the area's 14 mosques, ready to answer tough questions. He also has recruited an Egyptian Muslim agent who is known to the community and worships regularly at SALAM (Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims) and other local mosques…

What's different is the FBI interaction with the community, said Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group.

"We're receiving fewer complaints because the FBI's approaching community members with more respect," Elkarra said. "Things have gotten a lot better."
Today, said Sacramento CAIR founder Rashid Ahmad, his group trusts the FBI will follow up reported hate crimes or vandalism at mosques.

(2 b) US MUSLIMS WORRY ABOUT NEW FEDERAL RULES
Associated Press, 11/30/08

Some Arab and Muslim-Americans say new Justice Department guidelines that boost the FBI's power to investigate suspected terrorists could target innocent people.

The revised guidelines going into effect Monday will allow agents to use undercover sources to gather information, interview people without identifying themselves and spy on suspects without evidence of wrongdoing.

Critics say the rules will allow for abuses, including more racial and religious profiling.

(2 c) SIKH MUSICIANS PROTEST ORDER TO LEAVE PLANE

Susan Ferriss, Sacramento Bee, 11/27/08

Three Sikh Indian musicians who were ordered off a plane at Sacramento International Airport on Nov. 15 have filed complaints of discrimination and racial profiling with federal transportation officials and US Airways.

(2 d) 2009 is Going Green for Shura Council.

We will continue to offer tips, techniques and resources promoting a culture that Muslims are mandated to -

"Eat & Drink but do not waste. Allah does not like those who waste." (7:31)

National Recycling Coalition has chosen the Islamic Shura Council as one of the 85 recipients from across the country from a pool of 1,400 applicants. The Bin Grant Program is designed to help communities start or expand their recycling programs. Shura Council will provide the collection bins to the Southern California Masajid to collect used bottles and cans for recycling. Please look for these bins when you visit a Masjid and use them.

Shura Council of Southern California Newsletter - Dec 2, 2008

(3) INTERFAITH ISSUES:

Muslim Prayer Rooms should be opened in Catholic schools, says Church leaders.

Dec 29 2008

By Simon Caldwell

Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in every Roman Catholic school, church leaders have said. The Catholic bishops of England and Wales also want facilities in schools for Islamic pre-prayer washing rituals. The demands go way beyond legal requirements on catering for religious minorities.

But the bishops - who acknowledge 30 per cent of pupils at their schools hold a non-Christian faith - want to answer critics who say religious schools sow division.

The Islamic cleansing ritual, called 'Wudhu', is carried out by Muslims before they pray. Catholic schools would need to install bidets, foot spas and hoses to facilitate such extensive cleansing rituals, Muslims say.

Majid Khatme, a Muslim who sent his children to a London Catholic school, said he was delighted by the gesture. 'It is very kind of the bishops if they give this facility for Muslims to pray,' he said.

'I would love to send a letter of thanks to the bishops, really. If they do this all Muslims in Britain will be thankful to the Catholic Church to have facilities to pray. It is very, very encouraging.'

The recommendations have been approved by Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham and the favourite to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as Catholic primate. But it would be up to governing bodies of each school to decide whether to act on the guidance.

(4) FREEDOM OF SPEECH ISSUES:

(4a) EX-MARINE SUES TO DISPLAY ANTI-ISLAMIC CAR DECALS (Bumper-stickers)

Courtney C. Radsch, Al Arabiya, 12/9/08

The ex-Marine’s car left little doubt that he despised Islam and equated it with terrorism.

“ISLAM = TERRORISM” read one decal. Another showed a cartoon boy urinating on a man wearing a turban. Two featured a stop symbol over “The KORAN” and another over the star and crescent symbol. Yet another said disgrace my flag and I will (defecate) on your Quran.

Jesse Nieto was angry over the death of his son in the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S.-Cole in Yemen by Islamist militants. But officials at the military base where he worked told him he could not display the anti-Islamic decals on federal property.

The 25-year veteran has filed a federal lawsuit accusing base officials of violating his constitutional rights by requiring he remove them and preventing him from driving on federal installations.

Nieto’s youngest son Marc, 24, one of 17 U.S. Navy troops killed in the terrorist attacks, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington D.C. The ban on driving the offending car in federal installations blocks him from visiting his son’s grave, the lawsuit alleges, though public transportation is readily available.

In July, Nieto’s supervisor at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he worked as a civilian in an electrical shop, threatened to fire him if he did not remove the stickers and police issued him a ticket for displaying “offensive material.”

But since the ban does not prohibit speech in public areas, but rather restricted speech in a military location, it is not a free speech issue, said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“I think it’s up to the military to decide what constitutes good order and discipline on military sites. I don’t think anyone is saying he can’t be an anti-Muslim bigot in public but we're talking about military sites,” Hooper told AlArabiya.net.

(4 b) Facebook page glorifying (Muslim) massacre shut down

15 December 2008

A Facebook group glorifying the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of over 8 000 Bosnian Muslims appeared to have been shut down on Friday following complaints about its content.

The link to the Serbian group "Noz, zica, Srebrenica," or "Knife, Wire, rebrenica," which had attracted about a thousand people, was no longer directing users to the page, but no explanation was given.

A group opposed to the site had attracted 15 832 people since being created on Monday and alerted the administrator about it.

It said the controversial site "glorifies the acts of genocide. ..(and) propagates hatred to all Muslims."

During Bosnia's 1992-95 war, the eastern town of Srebrenica was a UN-protected Muslim enclave.

Serb forces overran Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, killing around 8 000 Muslim men and boys and throwing their bodies into mass graves.

The Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War 2, has been termed genocide by the International Court of Justice and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) - AFP

(5) CHILDREN:

UN calls for release of child soldiers

December 31 2008

Geneva - The ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has caused the displacement of more than 250 000 people, has put children at particular risk of recruitment into armed groups, the United Nations' Children Fund (Unicef) said on Wednesday.

Unicef called on "all armed groups to end the recruitment and use of children", Pierrette Vu Thi, the agency's chief in the DR Congo, said in a statement. They must "immediately release the children within their ranks".

The children are also prone to sexual exploitation and forced labour, particularly when they are separated from their families and unable to attend school, the agency said, warning that some former child soldiers were being re-recruited by rebels.

In the past four years, 10 000 children have been released and reintegrated into their communities.

Since September, the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted 200 children in the Dungu district, Unicef said, adding that it was working with 31 of these youngsters who managed to escape.

Fighting during the last decade in the DR Congo is estimated to have killed more than five million people and left over a million people internally displaced.

(6) WOMEN:

BELOW (6a and 6 b) ARE EXAMPLES OF ABUSE OF ISLAMIC LAWS AND VALUES BY UNSCRUPULOUS MUSLIM MEN.

(6 a) Muslim women in the streets against ‘talak’ or Islamic divorce

by Kalpit Parajuli

Kathmandu (AsiaNews)
Dec 02, 08

Hundreds of Muslim women along with their supporters took to the streets of Nepalgunj, a town in western Nepal, to protest against ‘Talak’ or Islamic divorce. The demonstrators, including 465 divorced Muslim women, human rights activists and about 100 Muslim men, marched on 26 and 27 November to demand immediate compensation from the women’s former husbands as well as equal division of assets after divorce.

Many Muslim women said that after divorce they were left with no support. Some said that they had to go back to their original families or find shelter at human rights organisations.

“Muslim men release (talak) their wives from the marriage, i.e. divorce them, but then no one thinks about them,” said Sima Khan, president of the Muslim Awareness Federation, one of the protest groups that organised the demonstration. “Women don’t get any of their husbands’ assets, or any support. This has increased the incidence of divorce in the Muslim community. We must achieve equal rights for these women,” she added.

Homelessness is in fact a problem for many Muslim women. Some are driven out of their parents’ home once the latter pass away.

“Many women go hungry or get into prostitution to make ends meet after divorce,” explains Nitu Haluwai, a Muslim human rights activist.

However, Muslim leader Maulana Abdul Jabbar said that talak, which is based on the Qur’an, has been badly interpreted over the years.

“Divorce proceedings ought to take place in accordance with the law but without
transgressing religious values,” he said.

(ASIANNEWS.IT)

(6b) INDIA: Divorce by e-mail sparks debate

New Delhi (AsiaNews/SCMP)

A Muslim woman whose husband in the US has divorced her by e-mail has thrown Islamic clerics and scholars in India into a spin.

A Muslim man must say talaq (I divorce you) three times or write it down. In this case, Rubab Anwar says her husband, Rahat Iqbal, sent her an e-mail from the United States. ...a month later, he left for the US, promising to send her a visa soon. The visa never came, but the divorce e-mail landed in her inbox...

The story comes as clerics are discussing the validity of "instant" divorces, permitted in India but banned in many Muslim nations. Such a divorce allows a man to say talaq three times in one go, rather than over a three-month period.

"Triple talaq is very effective but the authenticity of the communications must be established because it is open to misuse," said Khalid Rashid, a member of a prominent Muslim religious body.

Ms Anwar plans to challenge the authenticity of the method. Some clerics sympathise, saying that since e-mails do not have signatures, she needs to call her husband to confirm that he sent the e-mail.

Malaysia has banned divorce by SMS e-mail or fax.

(6 c) Iran: Women-only park opened in Tehran

Tehran (AsiaNews)

A park has been opened in Tehran exclusively for women, who will be able to exercise and go jogging "safely" there, and even leave their heads uncovered.

Imposed with the Islamic revolution of 1979, the women's dress "code" requires that women be covered from head to toe and avoid tight-fitting clothes. The moralising campaigns typically begin with the approach of summer, and the consequent desire to wear lighter clothing: those who are dressed "poorly" - in general with slacks that do not cover the entire leg, and with a few locks of hair straying out of the headscarf - risk fines, flogging, and prison, even if the matter is normally resolved with a warning on the part of the police (below photo).

According to the newspaper Farhang-e Ashti, the new campaign was launched last Saturday against women dressed "indecently". Men are also under fire: those with "Western" hair styles can be arrested. Barbers who give such hair cuts are also in danger, as are the women's clothing shops that sell "indecent" clothing.

But uncovered hair will be permitted in the "Mothers' Paradise", the public park exclusively for women, inaugurated by the mayor of the capital, Mohammad Baqir Ghalibaf. Surrounded by tall hedges and covered with colourful canopies, the park guarantees safety for the women who exercise there. The news agency Fars clarifies that this is not the first women-only park in the country: other cities, including Mashad and Qom, already have them.

(6 d) Mass Rape in the Congo: A Crime Against Society

By Ann Jones, The Nation.
December 23, 2008.

Mass rapes in the Congo are destroying civic life, as hundreds of thousands of rape victims are cast out from their families and communities.

Late one afternoon seven years ago, in the village of Kamanyola in eastern Congo, Fatuma Kayengela's husband sent their daughter and her cousin to the market to buy oil for the lamps. When the two 15-year-old girls turned to go back home, they found the way blocked by soldiers, who took them down the road. As darkness fell, Fatuma and her husband went in search of the girls and learned of screams and crying coming from the school. There they found the girls as the rapists had left them. They went to the police station for help, but the police said there was nothing they could do about soldiers. When Fatuma's husband grew angry, they threatened to arrest him. Thankful the girls were still alive, Fatuma took them home.

The Democratic Republic of Congo was titled Rape Capital of the World in 1994.

As direct targets of men at war, women and girls suffer terribly. The Interahamwe have been singled out as the worst perpetrators of atrocities, but every armed group is guilty of violating women. Men singly or in gangs rape women and girls of all ages. (Recorded victims range in age from 2 months to 83 years.) Men also cut off women's nipples or breasts, mutilate or cut off external genitalia, and eviscerate living pregnant women to remove and kill fetuses. After rape, men commonly insert foreign objects into the vagina: sticks, sand, rocks, knives, burning wood or charcoal, or molten plastic made by melting shopping bags. Killing the rape victim by firing a handgun or rifle inserted in the vagina is a common practice; some victims have survived. Rapists have blinded many women, apparently to prevent identification, and left countless others to die in the forest after chopping off their arms and/or legs. Soldiers also abduct women, and especially girls as young as 10 or 11, as captive "wives." Some escaped women and girls report being chained to trees for months, released only to be gang-raped, day after day. Many report witnessing the death of other captive women and girls, murdered as disciplinary examples or abandoned in the forest when they were no longer "serviceable."

Tens of thousands of rape victims have survived but suffer enduring symptoms of psychological trauma -- depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, despair -- and debilitating physical problems: crippled or missing limbs, blindness, damaged or destroyed internal organs and/or genitalia and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Thousands have been left with fistula, a complaint often misrepresented by male war correspondents unfamiliar with female anatomy.

Broadly, fistula refers to any perforation in the tissues separating the vaginal canal from the urinary tract and/or the rectum. There are several different types of fistula, depending on where the holes occur, but the typical result is uncontrollable leakage through the vagina of urine or feces or both. In less violent times, fistula most commonly results from prolonged labor in childbirth when the fetus presses upon maternal tissues, cuts off blood supply and creates "dead" spots that give way. The younger, and therefore smaller, the mother, the greater the likelihood of prolonged labor and fistula. When women have access to adequate maternal care, fistula is easily prevented; but in the DRC it occurs in remote areas even in the best of times.

It's true that long before the war Congolese men treated women as lesser creatures, forbidden to plant money-making crops such as coffee and cotton -- forbidden even to eat nourishing foods like eggs and chicken. It's true that men routinely used force if necessary to compel women's labor and sexual service. It's true that Congolese men hold notions that promote rape: that having sex makes men stronger, for example, or that having sex with a virgin immunizes against AIDS.

It's so dangerous that a special session of the UN Security Council in June passed Resolution 1820 to demand "the immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians."

Cultural norms die too when women are raped in the presence of their families; when boys and men are forced to rape their own sisters, mothers or daughters, or are murdered on the spot for refusing; when boy soldiers are compelled to rape babies or grandmothers. So divisive is rape, and the shame and terror that attend it, that even in the best case the family may fall apart.

(There also have been) cases of young girls raped in recent weeks not by militiamen but by civilians in the community. A 12-year-old raped by her teacher. A 9-year-old raped by a young boy. A 7-year-old raped by a middle-aged man. An 11-year-old raped by her father. A 7-year-old raped by her pastor. This is something new in the community since the war, and the women of CFK struggle to understand it.

(6 e) United States: The Online Gym for Muslim Women

Dec 1, 2008 (www.amhp.org/forum)

"As-salmualaikum

Fit Muslimah.com, “The online Gym for Muslim Women” is increasing its content and looking for writers. Topics related to the physical, mental and spiritual health of Women in general and Muslim Women for exclusive content on www.FitMuslimah.com.

Health, nutrition, fitness, exercise, prophetic medicine, spiritual growth, cancer, diabetes, illness prevention, treatment and related topics. No topics in opposition to Islamic belief will be accepted.

Men and women, Muslim and non-Muslim are encouraged to submit articles,. Articles should be 250-500 words in length, written in layman’s terms, practical advice or tips. Quality is key. Articles must be written in English. No spelling or grammatical errors. Articles must be 100% original and not created with spinning software. Strictly no plagiarism. Articles will be checked with Copyscape. Article body with approx 2% keyword density. (First and last paragraphs must contain the keyword). ALL WORK MUST BE ORIGINAL AND EXCLUSIVE TO FITMUSLIMAH.COM All rights and ownership will be transferred immediately to buyer (Fit Muslimah) upon payment.

After payment, you must not use the articles in any way including as examples of your work. Price per article will be around $10-$20 per article. You MUST have a paypal address to be paid. Please submit original article WITH-IN the body of the email to info@fitmuslimah.com
(no attachments).

Mubarakah Ibrahim"

(6 f) United States: Female Majority to Control New Hampshire Senate

By Jane Costello, Women's eNews, Dec 2, 2008

When the New Hampshire Senate convenes in January, women will run the show, forming the first female legislative majority in the nation.

LEBANON, N.H. -- New Hampshire's state Senate will carve history for the Granite State in January when the legislative body convenes with women in 13 of the 24 seats forming the country's first female majority.

Women will also factor in key positions of leadership: the Senate is presided over by its president, Sylvia Larson, and president pro-tem, Maggie Hassan, while Martha Fuller Clark continues her role as majority whip.

"We are setting a great example for young women: that they can get involved and run for office," says Sharon Carson, a newly elected Republican senator who formerly served as state representative from Londonderry and works as an adjunct professor at Nashua Community College.

Other states with a high portion of female legislators are Arizona, Minnesota, Hawaii, Maryland, Oregon and Maine.

After the defeat earlier this month of five female candidates for the state Legislature, South Carolina will have no female representatives when its state Senate convenes in January. It will be the first time since 1979 that its state Senate has had no women in office.

Women's eNews.

(6 g) (Certain) Foreign women married to Saudis abuse the system

Hassna’a Mokhtar, Arab News

JEDDAH:

A group of sociologists and a lawyer are currently studying the issue of non-Saudi women who marry Saudis and apply for divorce after obtaining Saudi citizenship.

Wail Joharji, 36, a lawyer and legal consultant, believes foreign women divorce their Saudi husbands as soon as they get citizenship for many reasons, which include their eligibility to claim social security, the right to take substantial business loans from the Centennial Fund or the Saudi Credit and Saving Bank, and the opportunity to marry non-Saudis who wish to have a Saudi sponsor to run businesses in the Kingdom.

“Divorce harms women and children. We have to maintain a smooth and just mechanism for marriage and divorce, leaving no loopholes for anyone to abuse the system. There is a percentage of foreign women, especially those born and raised in the Kingdom, who marry Saudis with the intention of only claiming Saudi nationality,” said Joharji.

He added that the study is in the interest of Saudi society in general and those children who are affected by such divorces in particular.

“We’re not against men or women. We’re against people abusing the system to serve their own twisted purposes,” said Joharji.

Feel free to e-mail your valuable comments: amyusuf786@yahoo.com

VOICE OF GLOBAL UMMAH
Volume 59, December 21, 2008
St. Louis, Missouri

Editors: Mohamed & Rashida Ziauddin

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful

HOW BOTH THE MINORITIES - AMERICAN JEWS AND AMERICAN MUSLIMS CAN PARTNER TOGETHER TO RESIST THE EXTREMISTS - WHITE SUPREMACISTS.

Editorial:

As we have indicated in our earlier issues, there are several common points among extremists of all religions and races. Some of the most defining common traits of extremists are INTOLERANCE, RIGIDITY, AND CLOSE MINDED APPROACH TO OTHER RELIGIONS OR GROUPS THAT ARE NOT THEIRS. Based on their above common points, one should not be surprised to see common parallels between Al Queida and the White Supremacists.

"Once all the Jews are gone the world will start fixing itself" stated Timothy McVeigh who was the mastermind of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. Let's not forget that he was radicalized during his experience as a soldier in the first Gulf War. Now that there is enough evidence of several white supremacists having entered the American military, to what extent they may involve in domestic terrorism within the U.S. after their return (as the Oklahoma City bombing) remains to be seen. How many more targeted Jewish, Muslim or Nonwhites would be victims of their hate remains to be seen.

It is still not too late for the American interfaith movement to focus on the common points for their common good and for their common protection to work together unitedly. Luckily there are millions of loving Christians who themselves brand such white supremacists as EXTREMISTS.

Per below article, "two years ago, the Intelligence Report revealed that alarming numbers of neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacist extremists were taking advantage of lowered armed services recruiting standards and lax enforcement of anti-extremist military regulations by infiltrating the U.S. armed forces in order to receive combat training and gain access to weapons and explosives.

A new FBI report confirms that white supremacists are infiltrating the military for several reasons. According to the unclassified FBI Intelligence Assessment, "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel Since 9/11," which was released to law enforcement agencies nationwide: "Sensitive and reliable source reporting indicates supremacist leaders are encouraging followers who lack documented histories of neo-Nazi activity and overt racist insignia such as tattoos to infiltrate the military as 'ghost skins,' in order to recruit and receive training for the benefit of the extremist movement."

One of the Blood & Honour members claiming to be an active-duty soldier taking part in combat operations in Iraq identified himself to Kennard as Jacob Berg. He did not disclose his rank or branch of service. "There are actually a lot more 'skinheads,' 'nazis,' white supremacists now [in the military] than there has been in a long time," Berg wrote in an E-mail exchange with Kennard. "Us racists are actually getting into the military a lot now because if we don't every one who already is [in the military] WILL TAKE PITY on killing sand niggers. Yes I have killed women, yes I have killed children and yes I have killed older people. But the biggest reason I'm so proud of my kills is because by killing a brown many white people will live to see a new dawn."

Dear Jewish and Muslim Brothers and Sisters, the white supremacists would love to kill both of our minority groups in the US and would love to see us annihilated. Right now the above highly trained and skilled racist and white supremacist select group of soldiers are temporarily in Iraq. Once they return they would love to use their military skills, expertise on their enemies in the United States- JEWS and NONWHITES.

If you are still not convinced of the need for us to work together to protect not only us but to protect people from all non-Christian faiths in America, then THINK AGAIN.

Racial Extremists Are Infiltrating the Military for the Chance to 'Kill a Brown'

Condensed version: By David Holthouse, Intelligence Report.
December 15, 2008.

New evidence suggests that white supremacists are taking advantage of lowered recruiting standards to enter the armed services.

The racist skinhead logged on with exciting news: He'd just enlisted in the United States Army.

"Sieg Heil, I will do us proud," he wrote. It was a June 3 post to AryanWear Forum 14, a neo-Nazi online forum to which "Sobibor's SS," who identified himself as a skinhead living in Plantersville, Ala., had belonged since early 2004. (Sobibor was a Nazi death camp in Poland during World War II).

About a month after he announced his enlistment, Sobibor's SS bragged in another post to Forum 14 that he'd specifically requested and been assigned to MOS, or Military Occupational Specialty, 98D.

MOS98D soldiers are in high demand right now. That's because they're specially trained in disarming Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), the infamous roadside bombs that are killing and maiming so many U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Presumably, part of learning how to disarm an IED is learning how one is made.

"I have my own reasons for wanting this training but in fear of the government tracing me and me loosing [sic] my clearance I can't share them here," Sobibor's SS informed his fellow neo-Nazis.

One of his earlier posts indicated his reasons serve a darker purpose than defending America: "Once all the Jews are gone the world will start fixing itself." Timothy McVeigh

Many analysts believe that Timothy McVeigh, mastermind of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, was radicalized during his experience as a soldier in the first Gulf War.

Sobibor's SS included enough biographical details in his various posts to Forum 14 over the years, including that he's a single father from the small town in southern Alabama, that a military investigator with access to enlistment records for recent months should have little trouble determining whether the Army may actually be teaching a skinhead with genocide on his mind about tactical bomb-making.

But there's little reason to expect that will happen.

Forty members of Congress urged then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to launch a full-scale investigation and implement a zero-tolerance policy toward white supremacists in the military. "Military extremists present an elevated threat to both their fellow service members and the public," U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, wrote in a separate open letter to Rumsfeld. "We witnessed with Timothy McVeigh that today's racist extremist may become tomorrow's domestic terrorist."

But neither Rumsfeld nor his successor, Robert Gates, launched any sort of systemic investigation or crackdown. Military and Defense Department officials seem to have made no sustained effort to prevent active white supremacists from joining the armed forces or to weed out those already in uniform.

Furthermore, new evidence is emerging that not only supports the Intelligence Report's original findings, but also indicates the problem may have worsened since the summer of 2006, as enlistment rates have continued to plummet, and the military has struggled to meet recruitment goals in a time of unpopular war. Asked about the latest developments, military officials this fall declined to comment.

The FBI report details more than a dozen investigative findings and criminal cases involving Iraq and Afghanistan veterans as well as active-duty personnel engaging in extremist activity in recent years. For example, in September 2006, the leader of the Celtic Knights, a central Texas splinter faction of the Hammerskins, a national racist skinhead organization, planned to obtain firearms and explosives from an active duty Army soldier in Fort Hood, Texas. That soldier, who served in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, was a member of the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group.

"Looking ahead, current and former military personnel belonging to white supremacist extremist organizations who experience frustration at the inability of these organizations to achieve their goals may choose to found new, more operationally minded and operationally capable groups," the report concludes. "The military training veterans bring to the movement and their potential to pass this training on to others can increase the ability of lone offenders to carry out violence from the movement's fringes."

In May, Army Cpl. Adrian Petty, a member of the Vinlanders Social Club (VSC) skinhead gang, posted several photos to his MySpace page showing himself in uniform serving in Iraq. One, depicting him riding in a Humvee, was captioned, "On Another VSC Recruiting Mission."

Currently, 46 members of the white supremacist social networking website Newsaxon.com identify themselves as active-duty military personnel. Six of these individuals are members of "White Military Men," a New Saxon sub-group.

Earlier this year, the founder of White Military Men identified himself in his New Saxon account as "Lance Corporal Burton" of the 2nd Battalion Fox Company Pit 2097, from Florida, according to a master's thesis by graduate student Matthew Kennard. Under his "About Me" section, Burton writes: "Love to shoot my M16A2 service rifle effectively at the Hachies (Iraqis)," and, "Love to watch things blow up (Hachies House)."

Kennard, who was working on his thesis for Columbia University's Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, also monitored claims of active-duty military service earlier this year on the neo-Nazi online forum Blood & Honour, where "88Soldier88" posted this message on Feb. 18: "I am in the ARMY right now. I work in the Detainee Holding Area [in Iraq]. I am in this until 2013. I am in the infantry but want to go to SF [Special Forces]. Hopefully the training will prepare me for what I hope is to come."

The Army is currently investigating war crimes allegations leveled against Iraq combat veteran and active-duty Army soldier Kenneth Eastridge, 24, who in November was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the December 2007 murder of a fellow serviceman. After Eastridge was arrested for that killing, National Public Radio publicized his MySpace page, which showed Eastridge displaying a tattoo of SS lightning bolts, a common neo-Nazi insignia.

Another member of Eastridge's company recently told Army investigators that Eastridge used a stolen AK-47 to fire indiscriminately at Iraqi civilians from his moving Humvee on the streets of Baghdad. "The military is to some extent desperate to get people to fight, soldiers who are not fit, mentally and physically sick, but they continue to send them," Eastridge's attorney told Kennard. "Having a tattoo was the least of [Eastridge's] concerns."

As part of the research for his thesis, "The New Nazi Army: How the U.S. military is allowing the far right to join its ranks," Kennard used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain from the Army's Criminal Investigative Division investigative reports concerning white supremacist activity in 2006 and 2007. They show that Army commanders repeatedly terminated investigations of suspected extremist activity in the military despite strong evidence it was occurring. This evidence was often provided by regional Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which are made up of FBI and state and local law enforcement officials.

For example, one CID report details a 2006 investigation of a suspected member of the Hammerskins, a multi-state racist skinhead gang, who was stationed at Fort Hood, a large Army base in central Texas. According to the report, there was "probable cause" to believe that the soldier "had participated in a white extremist meeting and also provided a military technical manual 31-210, Improvised Munitions Handbook, to the leader of a white extremist group in order to assist in the planning and execution of future attacks on various targets."

The report shows that agents only interviewed the subject once, in November 2006, before Fort Hood higher-ups called off the investigation that December.

Another report, also from 2006, covers an investigation of another Fort Hood soldier who was posting messages on Stormfront.org, a major white supremacist website. One CID investigator expresses his frustration at the muddled process for dealing with extremists. "We need to discuss the review process," he writes. "I'm not doing my job here. Needs to get fixed."

A third CID report, regarding a 2007 investigation, notes the termination of an investigation of a soldier at Fort Richardson, Alaska, who was reportedly the leader and chief recruiter for the Alaska Front, a white supremacist group. According to the report, the investigation was halted because the solider was "mobilized to Camp Shelby, MS in preparation for deployment to Iraq."

Feel free to e-mail your comments: amyusuf786@yahoo.com

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:

(a) MUXLIM.PAL: Muslim friendly virtual world goes LIVE.

(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.

(c) Ummah should condemn child marriages
(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

"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

(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.

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.

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.

When I covered my hair, I didn't lose my ability to read the news.

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.

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

Guide dog Vargo became the first guide dog in the country to enter a mosque on September 25 after the Islamic Shari’ah Council issued a fatwa (religious opinion) allowing blind and partially sighted Muslims to take their guide dogs to mosques. (www.muslimnews.co.uk)

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, Cairo

Feel free to e-mail your responses: amyusuf786@yahoo.com

VOICE OF GLOBAL UMMAH

Volume 57, Dec 07, 2008
St. Louis, Missouri

Editors: Mohamed & Rashida Ziauddin

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful

CONTENTS:

(1) WOMEN:
(a) First All Female Saudi Rock Band
(b) Economic Downturn Hits Women the Hardest (What can the Ummah do to help their sisters)

(2) MUSLIM SOCIAL SERVICES:
"Muslims Visiting Muslims" Groups: (A Model that needs to be replicated among all Muslim communities across the western world)

(3) POINT OF DEBATE:
Yoga Ban: Don't question FATWA, says Council.

(4) MEDIA:
Turkey Bans "blog spot" - The World's Largest Blog Hosting Service: (Sorry our Turkish Brothers and Sisters you would not have direct access to this E-Zine: Voice of Global Ummah)

(5) FAMILY: President Elect Obama's daughters will still have to do house chores: (What an average family can learn from above)

(6) CHILDREN: When Children Become a Commercial Commodity - Sale of baby through Internet: "INTERNET BABY PUT IN TEMPORARY CARE"

(7) Welcome to the World of Islam: "Pop singer Michael Jackson Becomes a Muslim and Changes his name to MIKAEEL"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1) WOMEN:

(a) Saudi Arabia's First All Female Rock Band: (Dina, Dareen, Lamia and Amjad)

An interesting article was published by New York Times about an all-female Saudi Rock Band named "The Accolade". There are no photos of this band because of Saudi prohibitions for public posing. They do have a My Space page, where you can listen to their first single, "Pinocchio."

Edmund Blair Leighton's "The Accolade", from which the band takes its name. "I liked the painting because it shows a woman who is satisfied with a man" said Accolade's founder, Dina, age 21.

The band is led by sisters Dina, 21, and Dareen, 19, and they are hoping to play live shows to all-female audiences in private homes, but currently they get their exposure through their My Space page. Dina expressed hope to the New York Times that the band would eventually be able to play "real" concerts: "It’s important for them to see what we’re capable".

It is historic that these four young Saudi women made music and publicly broadcast it while not displaying their identifying photos and last names.

Condensed version of below article by ROBERT F. WORTH

Nov 23, 2008, JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — "They cannot perform in public. They cannot pose for album cover photographs. Even their jam sessions are secret, for fear of offending the religious authorities in this ultraconservative kingdom.

The band’s first single, “Pinocchio,” has become an underground hit here, with hundreds of young Saudis downloading the song from the group’s My Space page. Now, the pioneering foursome, all of them college students, want to start playing regular gigs — inside private compounds and of course — and recording an album.

In a country where women are not allowed to drive and rarely appear in public without their faces covered, the band is very different. The prospect of female rockers clutching guitars and belting out angry lyrics about a failed relationship — the theme of “Pinocchio” — would once have been unimaginable here.

“The upcoming generation is different from the one before,” said Dina, the Accolade’s 21-year-old guitarist and founder. “Everything is changing. Maybe in 10 years it’s going to be O.K. to have a band with live performances.”

Dina said she first dreamed of starting a band three years ago. In September, she and her sister Dareen, 19, who plays bass, teamed up with Lamia and Amjad, the keyboardist.

They were already iconoclasts: Dina and Dareen wear their hair teased into thick manes and have pierced eyebrows. During an interview at a Starbucks here, they wore black abayas — the flowing gown that is standard attire for women — but the gowns were open, showing their jeans and T-shirts, and their hair and faces were uncovered. Women are more apt to go uncovered in Jiddah than in most other parts of the country, though it is still uncommon.

“People always stare at us,” Dareen said, giggling. She and her sister are also avid ice skaters, another unusual habit in Saudi Arabia’s desert.

The band gets together to practice every weekend at the sisters’ house, where their younger brother sometimes fills in on drums. In early November, Dina, who studies art at King Abdulaziz University, began writing a song based on one of her favorite paintings, “The Accolade,” by the English pre-Raphaelite painter Edmund Blair Leighton. The painting depicts a long-haired noblewoman knighting a young warrior with a sword.

“I liked the painting because it shows a woman who is satisfied with a man,” Dina said.

She had thought of writing a song based on “Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci but decided that doing so would be taking controversy too far.

Dina held out her cellphone to show a video of the band practicing at home. It looked like a garage-band jam session anywhere in the world, with the sisters hunching over their instruments, their brother blasting away at the drums and Lamia clutching a microphone.

“We’re looking for a drummer,” Lamia said. “Five guys have offered, but we really want the band to be all female.”

What we’re doing — it’s not something wrong, it’s art, and we’re doing it in a good way,” Dina said. “We respect our traditions.”

All the members are quick to add that they disapprove of smoking, drinking and drugs.“You destroy yourself with that,” Lamia said. (nytimes)

(b) "ECONOMIC DOWNTURN HITS WOMEN THE HARDEST"

(ED NOTE:

"What can the Ummah do to help their sisters ? There are some who would argue against us even bringing up above topic with focus on helping our sisters. They would argue that men are the head of households and men too have been impacted by the economic downturn and therefore being head of households and having greater responsibilities, they should be the focus, not women".

Broadly speaking, we all know that women as females are more vulnerable than men and specially in situations where the females are single parents and have no males in the household, who among the UMMAH could argue that they are not vulnerable and what are we doing to assist our sisters in general anyway ?

In many Board Sponsored meetings by Islamic Centers, for elections of Board Members, you observe in their speeches, almost a generic format of activities that they plan to support and implement on an annual basis. However very rarely you see them address issues relating to assist victims of domestic violence or assist female headed households who in most situations literally have more than TWO FULL TIME jobs in terms of working at their real jobs in the workplace and also taking on the dual roles of both father and mother at home.

At times a single mother's situation gets further worse, if she had to also deal with medical problems not only of herself but also of her children or elderly parents and it could be overwhelming for her.

AS AN EXAMPLE:

Instead of reaching out to assist a particular single mother facing multiple stressors, some of the Muslims are so disconnected with the realities of her stressors that they complain of her not frequently visiting and participating in the various activities of the Islamic Center. Based on their verbalizations, all they are concerned about is to ensure that she comes frequently to the Islamic Center and attend the various activities.

Somehow in their magical thinking, once she does regular prayers and the above "ALL HER PROBLEMS WILL BE SOLVED". As an added bonus, they would also pray for her. While we hundred percent agree that doing regular prayers, participation in Islamic activities and praying Allah to give relief for the needy is very important, what we argue is that above is not an end in itself. Above spiritual and religious aspects need to be SUPPLEMENTED by the realities on the ground.

Above advice can be given by anybody, but what is difficult is to implement an active outreach program to reach out to the most vulnerable individuals undergoing extreme stress, assess their situation, draw up a plan of various ways to assist, while maintaining the confidentiality of the needy person, and actively seeking help from fellow Muslims and through other resources to assist the needy.

From the above example of the Muslima who is a single mother, it is obvious that they (Muslims in her social circle) have no clue of her work schedule and her minimum wage earned in two sometimes three different jobs besides other problems that she as a single parent has to face. Her immediate harsh realities are to prevent her electricity and/or gas to be disconnected for nonpayment of past dues, fear of eviction for being behind in her rental payments, needing help with transportation to drive her kid with high fever to the hospital and difficulty in deciding whether she should risk losing her job for chronic absences or plead with others to take her child to the hospital, so that she could continue her job uninterrupted and have the money to pay the past due rent to prevent eviction.

Above are the stressors and realities faced by the vulnerable Muslims, that the Ummah through their organizational structures such as SOCIAL SERVICE COMMITTEE of their local Islamic Centers need to reach out and assist.

The concept of BIG BROTHER AND BIG SISTER could be of tremendous help, especially to single parents, but it is alien in practice in the Muslim community . But most of us would not get tired to repeat again and again that WE ARE ONE UMMAH and we should help each other, while in our practice ignoring the sufferings of our most vulnerable populations.

As a side note, before the next election cycle for nominating the BOARD MEMBERS OF THE ISLAMIC CENTER, when Board Members give you multiple reasons of why you should VOTE for him or her, we encourage all members of Islamic Centers to ask their Board Members of what concrete plans they have in place to assist abused and homeless Muslim women and their children?

We encourage all Muslims to seriously consider steps to help ALL OTHER MUSLIMS in whatever feasible ways possible specially in the current situation of severe economic downturn. Needless to say, the vulnerable population including Women and Children should be given a priority in terms of Ummah's assistance (through Zakat and Social Service Funds from Islamic Centers) in their respective local communities.

We realize the common complaint we hear about LIMITATION OF FUNDS, but can anyone argue against limitation of EMOTIONAL SUPPORT, limitation of ability to ASSESS & REFER TO VARIOUS GOVERNMENTAL AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL RESOURCES. Needless to say above two non-financial supports cannot be implemented optimally without A CONCRETE ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT structure which could be developed and implemented by the Islamic Centers through their MUSLIM SOCIAL SERVICE Committee).

Below article is condensed version: "Economic Downturn Hits Women the Hardest"

By Brittany Schell, One World.
November 28, 2008
(alternet.org)

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 -- Women are being disproportionately affected by the U.S. mortgage crisis and economic plunge, said a panel of women leaders Wednesday, urging a strong woman-focused response from the federal government.

In Rhode Island, the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country, one woman has not been able to find a job for the past eight months and is losing her house to the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Another, struggling to take care of her 14-year-old granddaughter because her own daughter is in jail, is a tenant in a building that is being foreclosed. She is being evicted by the bank, even though she is willing to pay rent.

These women's stories, told by Sara Mersha, the executive director of Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) in Rhode Island, are part of what she calls the "economic Katrina."

DARE is doing a local research study concerning the crisis. While visiting homes being foreclosed, Mersha noticed another disturbing trend: "There are disproportionate numbers of women behind those doors," she said.

The effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis on women are exacerbated by other, pre-existing problems, according to the panelists. Sara Gould, president and CEO of the Ms. Foundation, said that out of the 37 million Americans living in poverty, 27 million are women and children. In fact, she added, single mothers and their families are more likely to live in poverty than any other demographic group in the United States.

Panelists agreed that there is not an adequate support system to help these women living in poverty. Fully two thirds of the minimum wage and below-minimum wage workforce in the United States are women, said Gould. For many of these workers, the laws are inadequate to protect their rights.

Ai-jen Poo, a lead organizer and founder of Domestic Workers United in New York City, advocates on behalf of a huge low-wage workforce: domestic workers. Ai-jen said that in the city, 200,000 women are employed as domestic workers.

She told the story of a woman who worked for a family for three years before she was called and told not to come to work the next day. She was replaced by someone who would work for half the amount she had been paid. Without notice and with no severance pay, this woman was left to figure out how to put food on the table for her own four children.

Ai-jen said she gets calls like this every day from women wondering what their rights are. The truth is, she said, there are no laws in the domestic work sector concerning severance pay or notice.

Mersha said that even half the money devoted to the $700 billion government bailout for banks could have a huge impact on housing, jobs, health care, education, and other social programs that would benefit women and communities.

(2) MUSLIM SOCIAL SERVICES:

"Muslims Visiting Muslims" Groups:
(As published in the forum of AMHP- American Muslim Health Professionals)

A Model that needs to be replicated among all Muslim communities across the western world

"At our group of "Muslims Visiting Muslims" (a group of volunteers who visit Muslim patients in hospital and Long Term Care facilities) alhumdulillah we have made a very professionally looking and nice brochure for Muslims patients and their families.

It is a 8.5x14, 4-fold, compilation of du'as from Qur'an and Sunnah as well as Islam's view of illness. We think this will be good resource for patients, their families, as well as non-Muslim chaplains who really don't know much about Islam".

We wold love to share them with you and with the Hospital chaplains that you are working with. If interested please contact me. (TamimSaidi - at - yahoo . com, no spaces) Tamim (from Minnesota)

(3) POINT OF DEBATE:

Yoga Ban: Don't question FATWA, says Council.

(ED NOTE:
Structurally many Muslims have a problem in dealing with difference of opinion. You can get a good sample of it during family get togethers, parties or during Board Meetings at Islamic Centers. Such dismal response to difference of opinion has nothing to do with Islam per se, but more to do with cultural and other related aspects.

In reality their response is more unIslamic than Islamic. Islam ultimately stands on its long term vision of universal brotherhood and not a mentality based on US Versus THEM. It is the golden aspects of exercising maximum tolerance, patience, perseverence that could ultimately make a positive change in the long run. On the other hand, being rigid, intolerant, close minded only helps to foster more hatred among the two differing individuals or groups.

If you carefully observe how they interact on a situation where there are marked difference of opinion, many of them are quick to give labels such as: he or she "is an hypocrite", "khafir" et.c.

Structural change may not come until we realize that each issue may have two or more perspectives. While nobody can force us to change our individual perspective, it does not hurt to LISTEN and genuinely attempt to understand the opposing perspective. Even "listening" is a form of respect you are giving to the other individual and statistically you have a better chance of him or her reciprocating on the same lines than if you attempt to quickly dismiss his or her perspective even without listening to what he or she has to say".

Below is a ban called upon by a FATWA. We encourage the readers to give their perspective either supporting the ban or opposing such a ban).

Yoga Ban: Don't question fatwa, says Council
Nov 23, 2008
Condensed version by : Farrah Naz Karim

Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin says yoga can erode the belief of Muslims.

PUTRAJAYA:

As expected, the National Fatwa Council yesterday announced that Muslims are prohibited from practising yoga. In declaring yoga haram, the council said it could be traced back to Hinduism and concluded that yoga could erode the faith of Muslims.

Council chairman Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin said the decision was made as yoga involved elements that were against the beliefs of Islam in its physical movements, chanting and worship.

"Many Muslims in the country fail to understand the ultimate aim of yoga.

"It combines physical movements, religious elements, chanting and worshipping for the purpose of achieving inner peace and ultimately to be one with God," he said at a press conference to announce the decision yesterday. Shukor said once the fatwa was gazetted, it would be passed on to the states to decide on the enforcement.

Malaysia, he said, was not alone in prohibiting yoga among Muslims as the Singaporean and Egyptian Islamic councils had done the same.

Shukor said renowned Islamic scholars were also of the view that yoga could erode the faith of Muslims.

Asked if practicing yoga with the intention of promoting physical health was also against the fatwa, he said although it did not include the chanting and beliefs, it was discouraged.

This, he said, was because the physical movements of yoga were a component of the practice which was haram.

"In Islam, one must not do things which can erode one's aqidah (belief). Yoga, even the physical movements, is a step towards the erosion of a Muslim's belief, hence they must avoid it."

Muslims, he added, should be careful and conduct thorough studies before embracing rituals and practices that could threaten their faith.

He said Islam had long paved the way for Muslims to achieve spiritual peace and health and they should stick to these teachings, which included praying five times a day.

The Islamic Development Department (Jakim), he said, would start a programme to educate Muslims on why yoga was against the teachings of Islam.

Expecting a backlash from Malaysians on the decision, Shukor reminded non-Muslims not to question the fatwa.

"We respect the harmony and freedom of practice of other races. This is not something for non-Muslims to interfere in or question as this matter involves Muslims and their faith.

"It may not be acceptable to other races, but this is about Islamic teachings," he said.

Yoga practice among Muslims recently became an issue when Professor Zakaria Stapa of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Faculty of Islamic Studies said the practice could cause Muslims to deviate from Islam.

He had pointed out that yoga could be traced back to Hinduism and urged Muslims who practised it to stop and return to the teachings of Islam.

Yoga, which dates back more than 5,000 years and is a form of spiritual practice in India, is one of the six classic systems of Hindu philosophy that stresses self-control, discipline, postures, breathing, restraint of the senses, steadying of the mind, meditation and contemplation.

(NEW STRAIT TIMES www.nst.com.my)

Facing up: Malay women in attire printed with premier Mahathir Mohamad's face wait for his meet-the-people session. Mahathir is wooing young Muslims after anti-Islamic laws drew protests from women's groups. Photo: AP

Voters: Kashmiri women wait to vote during the fifth phase of state elections in Indian Kashmir, in Kakpora, India. Photo: AP

(4) MEDIA:

Turkey Bans "blogspot" - The World's Largest Blog Hosting Service:

27 October 2008

A court in south-east Turkey on Friday banned Turkish Internet users from accessing Blogger, the world's largest free blog hosting service.

Internet users in Turkey discovered on Friday afternoon that the site, which hosts millions of blogs, or web logs, had been blocked. When users tried to view a blogger's page they were redirected to a message which said: "Access to this website has been suspended in accordance with decision no. 2008/2761 of the TR Diyarbakir First Criminal Court of Peace."

No reason for the ban was given. Turkish Internet users are used to court-ordered bans of a large range of websites, including the video-sharing site Youtube, which was barred for hosting a video insulting the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Adnan Oktar, an Islamic creationist has also been successful in getting a variety of sites banned by court decisions, including blog hosting website Wordpress and the personal website of renowned biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins. - Sapa-dpa

(5) FAMILY:

President Elect Obama's daughters will still have to do house chores:
(What an average family can learn from above)

Obama girls still have to do their chores

November 28 2008

Chicago - US President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle say their young daughters would still have to do chores in the White House, and wouldn't get out of doing homework just because they were the president's children.

In a television interview with Barbara Walters on Wednesday, the Obamas said Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, would have lives as normal as possible. That meant helping out around the house.

"That was the first thing I said to some of the staff when I did my visit," Michelle Obama said. "I said, 'You know, we're going to have to set up some boundaries', because they're going to need to be able to make their beds, and clean up."

Obama has said in an interview that he hopes to make the White House environmentally friendly. He identified a couple of easy, everyday ways people could help make their home a greener place - such as turning off lights and unplugging chargers for electrical devices when not in use.

Showing he may be the first US president to embrace the green movement at home since Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House roof, Obama said he intended to confer with the chief usher about the building's energy efficiency.

Sapa-AFP

(6) CHILDREN:

When Children Become a Commercial Commodity - Sale of baby through internet: "INTERNET BABY PUT IN TEMPORARY CARE"

'Internet baby' put in temporary care

Nov 28, 2008

A Dutch judge on Thursday granted child care authorities temporary guardianship of a four-month-old Belgian boy allegedly sold by his parents to a Dutch couple over the Internet.

"The court accepts the request by the Child Care and Protection Board for temporary guardianship of Baby J," Judge Willem Miltenburg told reporters at the end of a closed hearing in the north-eastern Dutch town of Zwolle.

The Dutch couple "had acted in contravention of the rules," the judge said. "They took a child from abroad without permission, to absorb into their own family."

The pair, who are unable to have children of their own, made contact with the boy's biological mother after seeing an advertisement on the Internet, and took receipt of him a few hours after he was born in a Belgian hospital in July.

Dutch media have claimed that they paid the child's biological parents between €5 000 and €10 000 (about R64 000 and R128 000).

Belgian television reported on Wednesday that the natural parents now want the child returned.

The lawyer for the couple told Flemish VTM television that they felt bad about their decision and had come under pressure from family and friends to change their mind.

He said the financial situation of the couple, from Ghent, northern Belgium, had improved but they did not know whether they would be able to get the boy back.

Prosecutors in Ghent have opened an investigation into the couple for agreeing an adoption without official authorization, an offence that carries a five-year prison sentence in Belgium.
Sapa-AFP

(7) Welcome to the World of Islam:

"Pop singer Michael Jackson Becomes a Muslim and Changes his name to MIKAEEL"

Michael Jackson 'becomes a Muslim and changes name to Mikaeel'

Daily Mail Reporter
Nov 21st 2008

Beleaguered pop star Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel, it has been claimed today.

The 50-year-old singer, who has previously been photographed wearing a traditional Arab women's veil, reportedly became a Muslim in a ceremony at a friend's house in Los Angeles.

The singer, who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, is said to have sat on the floor and worn a small hat while an imam officiated at the home of Steve Porcaro, who composed music on his Thriller album.

Michael Jackson, pictured here wearing a traditional Arab women's veil in Bahrain in 2006, is said to have become a Muslim

He is said to have been encouraged by Canadian songwriter David Wharnsby and Phillip Bubal, a producer, who both approached him after he appeared 'a bit down'.

A source told The Sun: 'They began talking to him about their beliefs, and how they thought they had become better people after they converted. Michael soon began warming to the idea.

'An imam was summoned from the mosque and Michael went through the shahada, which is the Muslim declaration of belief.'

His brother Jermaine Friday, previously hinted Jackson was considering converting to the religion.

'When I came back from Mecca I got him a lot of books and he asked me lots of things about my religion and I told him that it's peaceful and beautiful,' said Friday, who embraced the faith in 1989.

'He read everything and he was proud of me that I found something that would give me inner strength and peace.

'He could do so much, just like I am trying to do. Michael and I and the word of God, we could do so much.'

Feel free to give your valuable comments at amyusuf786@yahoo.com