islam today - Issue12 -October 2013

issue 12 October

vol.1 2013

Journeying UK £3.00

to

God

The Feminist quandary • Egypt and the case of mummified politics • The grave sin of wastefulness

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Editorial team October 2013 Issue, 12 Vol, 1

Published Monthly

islam today magazine intends to address the concerns and aspirations of a vibrant Muslim community by providing readers with inspiration, information, a sense of community and solutions through its unique and specialised contents. It also sets out to help Muslims and non-Muslims better understand and appreciate the nature of a dynamic faith.

Managing Director

Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour

Chief Editor

Amir De Martino

Managing Editor

Anousheh Mireskandari

Political Editor

Reza Murshid

Health Editor

Laleh Lohrasbi

Art Editor

Moriam Grillo

Layout and Design

Sasan Sarab - Michele Paolicelli

Design and Production

PSD UK Ltd.

Concrete Installation - Khaled Jarra, Palestinian artist

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Editorial 5

The Place to BE

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Letters to the Editor

letters@islam-today.net

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Lonely but never alone

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Deeds not words Yvonne Ridley recalls the heroine of Suffragettes movement, Emily Wilding Davison

Masoud Tehrani

Ali Jawad

Mohsen Biparva

Batool Hayder

Muhammad Haghir

Frank Julian Gelli

Ronald Lewcock

Ghazaleh Kamrani

Sabnum Dharamsi

Hamid Waqar

Yvonne Ridley

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Publisher: Islamic Centre of England 140 Maida Vale London, W9 1QB - UK

ISSN 2051-2503

Politics 30

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In the Spotlight Ancient craft of Arabic calligraphy - Mats Abdel Karim Cederberg, Swedish artist

Ceramics Arabic calligraphy and geometry on clay Shahida Ahmed

Stepping Back from the Brink of War?

Architecture Qalandia 2067; A three dimensional mock-up of an urban compound – Wafa Harouni

Egypt and the Case of Mummified Politics Morsi’s misconception of his role as elected president caused him to lose the support of the military and a large part of society, says Masoud Tehrani

Cover 38

Journeying to God Alexander Khaleeli explores the mindset that pilgrims to God’s House should cultivate to make the most of this sacred journey

Painting Master callig­rapher Sabah Arbilli, Iraqi artist

Disclaimer: Where opinion is expressed it is that of the author and does not necessarily coincide with the editorial views of the publisher or islam today. All information in this magazine is verified to the best of the authors’ and the publisher’s ability. However, islam today shall not be liable or responsible for loss or damage arising from any users’ reliance on information obtained from the magazine.

Are we all Moors?

Mohsen Biparva reviews a book by Anouar Majid; We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and Other Minorities

Art

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Masjid Nabawi or Prophet Muhammad’s(s) Mosque The Prophet resting place.

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Reza Murshid analyses Washington’s desire to unleash war on Syria

Hannah Smith

Back Cover

Book Review

Batool Haydar suggests ways to combat loneliness and isolation in today’s society

www.facebook.com/islamtodaymag

Alexander Khaleeli

Message/Messenger - Abdulnasser Gharem, Saudi Arabian artist and army colonel

Bullying is characterised by the abuse of power. Sabnum Dharansi highlights how we can guard against it

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Addendum

The Beast Within

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The Venice Biennial - Through November 24

News from around the world

Life & Community

Information

Heritage Byzantine form lamp with Arabic inscriptions, C.7th-8th century CE

Believers are brethren

News 6

Contact us

Masterpiece

Feature 42

Middle East: Playground of Imperial Strategies As tensions build in the Middle East, Ali Jawad explains what is at stake for Muslims

Islamic Centre of England

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Editorial Opinion

Believers are brethren

What & Where 46

The Feminist quandary Western feminism has not been able to prevent the portrayal of women as sexual objects, says M Haghir

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Listings and Events Friday Nights Thought Forum - Islamic Centre of England

“… and pilgrimage to the House is incumbent upon men for the sake of God, (upon) everyone who is able to undertake the journey to it; and whoever disbelieves, then surely God is Self-Sufficient, above any need of the worlds ” (Qur’an; 3:97)

SOAS Palestine Society conference, Two Decades after Oslo Education in the Middle East

Faith 48

The grave sin of wastefulness

Samia Halaby New Paintings

Hamid Waqar talks about the Islamic position on wastefulness and extravagance

57th BFI London Film Festival Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) Course Insight with Paul Danahar: The New Middle East

Interfaith

An Anatolian Stonehenge: Göbekli Tepe

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Feast of the Guardian Angels On the occasion of the Christian Feast of the Guardian Angels, Frank Gelli reflects on the soothing effect of God’s messengers of love

Health

Masjid Talk on Mental health -Muslim Women’s Network UK Muslim South Asia Graduate Research Conference Persian and Islamic Arts: Trans-Cultural Geographies 9th World Islamic Economic Forum

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Blood-sucking healers Laleh Lohrasbi examines the return of leech-therapy and its current use in today’s medicine

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Law and the Muslim World (Conference) Islamic Futures in Post-Normal Times

Fatty Liver Disease

The 2013 Hajj is expected to fall on around October 13-18. In this issue ‘Journeying to God’ by Alexander Khaleeli encapsulates the essence of Hajj within the concept of ‘ubudiyya (human servitude to God) expressed in the performance of an act whose spiritual significance is not directly visible by our intellect.

Laleh Lohrasbi looks at of modern society’s biggest killers

Science 56

The Science of Replication Ghazaleh Kamrani explains the basics and latest developments in gene cloning

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The Origin of The Moon: The Mystery Continues Hannah Smith evaluates the scientific evidence of how the Earth gained its Moon

Places 62

Conservation of the Old Walled City of Sana’a Ronald Lewcock explains the importance of preserving Yemen’s most famous ancient city in the face of continuing threats from modernisation

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I

t has been several decades now since sociologists forecasted the decline of religion and the disappearance of religious rituals, proclaiming the dawn of a new secular age. Yet the reverse has happened. Every year over two million Muslims converge on Makkah to perform the world´s largest and most impressive annual religious ritual; the Hajj. Their number is what the arena of the ritual can contain to the brink, curbed unavoidably by quotas, with millions being forced to remain behind every year.

Glossary of Islamic Symbols The letters [swt] after the name of Allah [swt] (God), stand for the Arabic phrase subhanahu wa-ta’ala meaning: “Glorious and exalted be He”.

The letter [s] after the name of the Prophet Muhammad[s], stands for the Arabic phrase sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam, meaning: “May Allah bless him and grant him peace”.

The letter [a] after the name of the Imams from the progeny of the Prophet Muhammad[s], and for his daughter Fatimah[a] stands for the Arabic phrase ‘alayhis-salaam, ‘alayhassalaam (feminine) and ‘alayhimus-salaam (plural) meaning respectively: (God’s) Peace be with him/ her/ them.

The ritual we perform during the Hajj mirrors the actions of the last Prophet of God Muhammad(s), who revived the true spirit of this Abrahamic ritual made obligatory to us by the Quranic revelation.

For many this year’s pilgrimage will be their first, adding to the expected excitement of this period. There are also those who revisit Makkah. There is no limit on how many times one may perform the Hajj. Those who have the means return to relive its captivating experience motivated by a variety of reasons.

Reflecting on their experience, those who have been there confirm that the Hajj has involved some kind of spiritual reawakening regardless of the fact that they were seeking it or not.

In 1964, Malcolm X broke from the heterodox Nation of Islam and performed the Hajj. In a letter from Makkah, he wrote: “There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world… We were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white… What I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions” Researchers at the Harvard Kennedy School conducted a study on the effect of Hajj on pilgrims in 2008. They found an increased belief in equality and harmony among ethnic groups and Islamic sects, and also positive changes in attitudes towards women.

This increased sense of unity within the Islamic world did not translate into hostility towards non-Muslims. These changes were attributed to exposure and interaction with pilgrims from around the world, rather than religious instruction.

Such studies support the opinion of visionary Islamic leaders who have underlined the importance of utilising the socio-political dimension of Hajj and the role it can play as a place of convergence for Muslims to discuss and resolve issues related to Muslims and

the Islamic World.

It is undeniable that the world of Islam is facing some of its greatest ever challenges and that divisions expressed in the form of violence are a real threat that need to be addressed as matter of urgency.

It is not a coincidence that Prophet Muhammad(s) in a well-known sermon - delivered during the Farewell Hajj reminded the Muslims that: “Believers are brethren. Their blood has equal value. They are a single hand and power against others. The promise of each of them is like that of all, hence binding.”

The above words oblige us to actualise this directive and what better place to start than the very same place where they were spoken.

In this issue Ali Jawad analyses the current condition in the Middle East explaining the complex geopolitical situation that requires a degree of awareness on our part to avert a disaster caused by wrong and uninformed actions. He concludes with an exhortation which captures a feeling that he suggests we should all have: “If we extract no other lesson from the Divine pilgrimage this year except the need to dispel ignorant hatreds from our hearts, and to fill them instead with sentiments of brotherhood and shared concern, then one feels we will have made important leaps toward resolving our gravest problems”. • On behalf of the islam today magazine, I take this opportunity to wish all our readers a happy Eid al-Adha

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News BRITAIN

Inquiry heard how soldiers fired on wounded Iraqi detainees

Iraqi fighters, he was collecting weapons from dead gunmen in a ditch when he noticed two were ‘twitching’.

‘At the time, I assumed that because they were twitching this meant that there must be some life there,’ he said.

He said the men appeared to be ‘somewhere between life and death’ but

gunmen stopped twitching. There was no other reaction from the bodies. They did not make any other noise, they just stopped twitching.’

identify and follow suspects until the police arrive, as well as searching for missing people and stolen cars.

Amerat said the Muslim community planned to use Shomrim as a model for its own local volunteer patrol group, with operators handling calls in Urdu and Gujarati.

Sgt Kelly gave the gun back, and the incident was not mentioned between them again, he said.

The Ministry of Defence has denied the allegations, saying bodies handed back to Iraqis were of those who died on the battlefield.

‘It’s going to take time. We are looking for volunteers and maybe in two or three years we will be in a position to set something up,’ he said. ‘In the meantime we work together and we support each other.’

Jews and Muslims work together against far right Muslim leaders in an area of north-east London have recruited the help of a police-trained ultra-orthodox Jewish neighbourhood patrol to bolster security following attacks on mosques and threats against Muslim communities in the UK by far-right rogue elements.

A British soldier fired a volley of bullets into the ‘twitching’ bodies of Iraqis after a firefight, a public inquiry has heard.

The Al-Sweady Inquiry is examining allegations that British troops mistreated and unlawfully killed Iraqi detainees after the Battle of Danny Boy in southern Iraq in May 2004.

Former army Private Duncan Aston told the inquiry he also saw a fellow private stamp on the head of a dead Iraqi, and other comrades punch and kick a detainee.

He did not report the incidents, because he did not want to ‘grass’ on his friends, he said.

Mr Aston, who was serving with the 2nd Battalion the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, said his platoon sergeant demanded his weapon from him, and then opened fire on the bodies.

In a witness statement to the inquiry, Mr Aston - who has since left the Army - described how, after a firefight with

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looked past the point of first aid.

Mr Aston recalled his platoon sergeant, Paul Kelly approach the ditch ‘looking very angry’ and try to fire at one of the twitching men, but his weapon did not work.

‘He then threw his rifle to the ground and said words to the effect of “give me your weapon”.’

Sgt Kelly had seemed ‘worked up’ he said. ‘He had been injured earlier in the tour when he was shot in the finger and he had returned to Iraq after a spell in the UK a lot angrier than he had been before.’

He assumed Sgt Kelly wanted to fire his rifle at the bodies, but did not feel he could say no, Mr Aston told the hearing in central London.

‘He put a full magazine of bullets into both bodies that had been twitching but he also fired into the bodies of the other dead gunmen in the ditch.

‘The bodies of the two twitching

The initiative, in the Stamford Hill neighbourhood of Hackney, has seen mosques added to a list of local sites watched over by Shomrim, a volunteer organisation that responds to reports of crime, anti-social behaviour and other incidents in the area and calls itself ‘the eyes and ears of the police’.

‘We keep an eye on all the mosques. If we see anything suspicious, we’ll take down a car registration number, report it to the police, keep it for intelligence, log the call and hopefully there won’t be any trouble,’ Chaim Hochhauser, Shomrim’s supervisor, told the press.

Munaf Zeena, chairman of the North London Muslim Community Centre, said the arrangement, under which Shomrim volunteers have also advised the centre on security issues, was prompted by a series of attacks targeting mosques and Muslims since the killing of Lee Rigby, a British soldier, in Woolwich, south London, in May. Police have also reported an increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes. ‘The more evidence we have [of attacks happening], the more vigilant we need to become,’ Zeena said.

Stamford Hill is an area as diverse as any in London. About 14 percent of the population - approximately 34,000 people - of the wider borough of Hackney is Muslim, according to 2011 census figures, with large and longsettled communities from South Asia and Turkey.

Ian Sharer, a local Liberal Democrat councillor who brought leaders of the community centre and Shomrim together in June, said Jews and Muslims had long ago learned to live side by side.

‘People just get on with their lives, bring their children up, study their own laws, pray to their God,’ Sharer said. ‘People walk side by side to the mosque and the synagogue, and we like to see it.’

neighbourhood for many years now and when they pass the mosque they don’t close their eyes,’ he said. ‘But this makes it legitimised and the community now knows we are working together. Forget about race, forget about ethnicity, we are living together. And how can we live together without respecting and tolerating each other’s viewpoint, faith and customs?’

Shomrim operates a 24-hour emergency line with operators fluent in Yiddish and Hebrew handling almost 5,000 calls in the year up to June 2012, according to its own figures. Its volunteers pass on information to the police and attend the scene of reported incidents. Although they do not have powers of arrest, volunteers will often

Hochhauser said he welcomed the prospect of a Muslim patrol joining Shomrim on the streets of Stamford Hill. Such a scenario could be beneficial to the Jewish community as well, he added. Because of their strict observance of Shabbat, when many activities are prohibited, Shomrim volunteers can only respond to life-or-death incidents, such as a search for a missing person, on that day.

CANADA

Thousands protest in Montreal against plan to ban Hijab Thousands have marched through the streets of Montreal to denounce

Shomrim, modelled on the organisation of the same name in Haredi neighbourhoods of New York, was established in Stamford Hill in 2005 amid local concerns about crime and anti-Semitism.

‘There’s always been trouble. You always got people knocking off their hats. It’s a tough area. You’ve got “murder mile” a few yards away,’ said Sharer, referring to the infamous nearby stretch of road where stabbings and shootings were so common a decade ago that newspapers declared it ‘more dangerous than Soweto’.

‘Shomrim has been patrolling this

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News Quebec’s proposed charter of values, calling on Premier Pauline Marois to put an end to ‘politics of division.’

The protest, billed as an inclusive, multicultural event, drew many members of the Muslim and Sikh communities.

Others who claimed no religious allegiance also took part.

GERMANY

Court: schoolgirl not exempt from mixed swimming lesson

‘This is a time for all religions to come together for what they believe in,’ said Noman Safdar, a 24-year-old engineer who was holding up the sign.

The plan unveiled earlier has sparked a heated debate. The Parti Quebecois government wants to forbid Quebec’s public employees from wearing conspicuously visible religious symbols - including hijabs, turbans, yarmulkes and larger-than-average crucifixes.

While opinion polls indicate there is some support for the charter, mainly in the province’s outlying regions, opponents have called it discriminatory.

The PQ, which holds a minority in the provincial legislature, contends the move is necessary to ensure the public service presents a neutral face and protects equality between men and women.

For many at the rally, though, the most immediate concern was how such a law would limit their job prospects. Salma Ahmed, a 17-year-old Muslim high school student who wears a hijab, said she doesn’t want her career options to be limited.

One popular chant referred to Marois proposal as the ‘charter of shame.’

Another, which derided the premier for the ‘politics of division,’ finished with the punch line: ‘Quebec is not France.’

Marois has praised France’s secular integration model, which includes a ban on hijabs in schools.

Harbhajan Singh, a 60-year-old Sikh who wears a turban, said he worries the proposed law could lead to a ‘brain drain’ like the one he witnessed following the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty.

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The lawyer for the girl’s family had said that there was already segregation of gym lessons in some Catholic areas.

There are also some secular gyms in Germany which have segregated areas reserved for women to exercise.

SWEDEN Swedes don Hijab in solidarity with Muslim women A Woman Wearing Burkini

Romson who hope to raise awareness of the ‘discrimination that affects Muslim women’ in Sweden.

Writing in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, they said: ‘We believe that’s reason enough in a country where the number of reported hate crimes against Muslims is on the rise - and where women tie their headscarves extra tight so that it won’t get ripped off - for the prime minister and other politicians to take action to stop the march of fascism’.

Another atheist activist, Glammutan, who uploaded her hijab-clad image to Instagram wrote that she defies any critic: ‘who says I shouldn’t do this

US

table during Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting, which was hearing from the likes of Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel.

McCain caught playing poker during crucial Syria hearing

Despite being snapped by an eagle-eyed Washington Post photographer, the neo-con senator - who ran for President in 2008 - laughed off the matter.

US Senator John McCain has been caught playing poker on his iPhone during a key hearing about the possible use of military force in Syria.

He tweeted: ’Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!’

He played a few hands under the

Senator McCain is a strong supporter of military action against Syria.

The parents of a Muslim girl decided that their daughter should not take part in swimming lessons at her school in Frankfurt because they believed such lessons run contrary to Islamic principles of modesty.

However, the judge in the case said the girl could wear an all-over swimming garment - sometimes dubbed a ‘burkini’ - in order to accommodate her beliefs.

Some Muslim girls already wear the garment to take part in lessons. A burkini looks like a combination of a mini-dress, leggings, long-sleeve shirt and scarf wrapped into one. Devout Muslims wear them because the garment covers most of the skin and head. The full-bodied outfit is available in fashionable colours and styles in specialisd shops and on the Internet.

It was a burkini that the girl in question refused to wear during compulsory swimming lessons two years ago.

The judge in Germany’s Federal Administrative Court ruled that ‘the basic right to religious freedom does not... provide for any demand not to be confronted at school with the behavioural habits of third parties - including those pertaining to clothing’.

The judge went on to point out that such ‘habits’ were widespread in Germany in the summer months.

Swedish women have hit back after a pregnant woman’s headscarf was torn off and her head was slammed against a car by a racist assailant who also verbally abused her with racial slurs, causing her to pass out.

because I’m not a Muslim. Because I couldn’t possibly understand what it feels like to be a Muslim woman facing the world’s fears, hatred or unwillingness to understand from only a week of playing dress up.

Campaigners have been posting pictures of themselves wearing Muslim headscarves on social media in solidarity with the pregnant woman, who was treated in hospital for concussion after the assault in Stockholm.

But for me and for a lot of women participating in this action this is no pretend play to try out Islam for a week. This is an act of support to all women, Muslim or not, and especially for the woman who was attacked and beaten until unconscious simply for wearing hijab, in my own town. I do not wish to be affiliated with fear or hatred against Muslims or any other religious group and I do not feel threatened by diversity.’

The Hijab Outcry campaigners are demanding the Swedish government ‘ensure Swedish Muslim women are guaranteed the right to religious freedom’.

Among the activists are television presenter Gina Dirawi and lawyer Asa

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The beast within

Although bullying can take a variety of forms, it is characterised by one key feature – the abuse of power. Sabnum Dharansi highlights how we can guard against it

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online bullying, with organisations like Childline reporting a total of 4,507 complaints about online bullying in 2012-13, up 87 per cent from the previous year. We saw government getting involved to apply pressure on social networking sites to become more responsible and provide safeguards to protect young people from online abuse.

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he tragic news of Hannah Smith, the 14 year-old British schoolgirl who committed suicide in August this year after suffering abuse from cyberbullies, once again focused the nation’s attention on bullying. Many worrying statistics came to light, especially about

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But what is bullying? And can it ever be dealt with? This serious and complex topic is little understood. And it does need to be understood – for the sake of young people like Hannah. For the first thing to know about bullying is that it can happen anywhere and at any age - it’s not just the province of the online world or of young people.

There are many definitions of bullying.

According to the Tim Field Foundation (bullyonline.org) “bullying is persistent unwelcome behaviour, mostly using unwarranted or invalid criticism, nit-picking, fault-finding, also exclusion, isolation, being singled out and treated differently, being shouted at, humiliated, excessive monitoring, having verbal and written warnings imposed, and much more.”

Bullying at its root is the abuse of power. Whether the action is physical bullying (like kicking or punching) verbal or written bullying (harassing someone with inappropriate sexual or racial comments or intimidating someone with threats online) or social (excluding someone or ganging up on someone) bullying is essentially the misuse of power.

So why do people behave in this way?

What makes people bully others?

Are some people more likely to bully than others? In the animal kingdom, naked displays of power are common.

Chimpanzees, for example, will fight to establish dominance as the alpha male

but also to make their tribe or group the dominant one. The alpha male or the dominant group gets access to the best resources, including sexual partners and the ability to control others.

We like to think we human beings are more sophisticated, and we can be so, yet all of us also have the propensity to behave like animals. As the Qur’an says, we have the potential to be higher than the angels or lower than the animals.

Part of our nature is raw and instinctual - including the potential for fierceness and savagery. There is a beast within, a beast that would like to crush the competition and that wants to be and respects the ‘top dog’. You can witness this assertion of dominance very clearly in gang behaviour, but also in the nasty put-downs that occur in communities and even between friends.

So what stops this animal aspect from taking over completely? There is also another side to us – the aspect of us that finds the idea of this base behaviour abhorrent. This higher aspect, in Islamic terminology, is known as the ‘fitra’. Human beings are born with the ‘fitra’, the natural disposition of the human being, which is inclined from birth to do right and to love God and His beautiful qualities. The fitra within us tells us that we love justice, friendship, love and peace. There is within us (thank God!) a blueprint that beckons us to love and worship these divine qualities. We long to be “higher than the angels”. It’s who we are supposed to be.

Both the fitra and the animal aspects are God-given aspects of who we are, and we need both. But what we also need to understand is how to be with both in the right way. Challenges and experiences encourage the exercise of rationality and reflection so that we

teach ourselves to make better choices.

As we go through life we begin to understand that we need to be more circumspect in the way we exercise power. But becoming wiser is not a given. Not being a beast or a bully is something we also have to learn. One of the key barriers to this learning is our own selves. We can be in denial of this animal aspect within us. We would like to deny it because it’s uncomfortable to think of ourselves as being so low. We would like to pretend it’s not there, because it can be difficult and dangerous. Denial of the value and longing for power is serious because it means that we don’t acknowledge the reality of a situation and can even hide from our own motivations. We fool ourselves by saying things like “they deserved it” or “if I didn’t, somebody else would have”. Denial is also one of the reasons why bullying is often unrecognised by the perpetrators, victims and bystanders (those who witness bullying).

It is common to hear bullying being trivialised: “it’s just a laugh” or “people can just switch off if they don’t like it”.

And this is serious because it means that those who are being victimised by bullies feel that they are somehow to blame for not being able to stand up to the abuse. Research shows that victims and bystanders typically do not seek help from peers or adults when they are unable to solve the problem on their own and that victims are likely to blame themselves for their victimisation and to “suffer in silence”. And it is obvious how not seeking help and blaming oneself can lead people to feeling like they are helpless and alone. And sometimes those feelings become overwhelming and people start to believe they will never succeed in life. And this is the dangerous part – sometimes people become so despairing that they lose hope entirely.

Changing this culture of denial is not easy. Most of us would perhaps like to deny our lust for power and dominance, and think of ourselves as good people.

But we can begin by recognising that power and control are valuable to us, and that they help us to be and feel less vulnerable. Power and control is seductive and attractive. We all need to win sometimes. What is problematic though is if we need to win all the time, or if we want to win in ways that damage others.

One of the key aspects though, about the ‘fitra’, and human development, is learning to exercise power with justice, love and compassion. I believe that part of this is being able to see through our blind spots and denials, and reflect on our own vulnerability and to accept the mistakes that we make. In other words, we also need to come to terms with the fact that with winning also comes losing.

Reflecting on our vulnerability is hard because it means admitting to ourselves - and sometimes to others - that we are weak, and that can make us even more vulnerable. And feeling vulnerable can make you want to defend yourself, perhaps when you’ve not even been attacked. It’s often said that bullies are insecure, attacking others in the hope that no one will attack them.

Vulnerability can arise because of a number of factors. It can come about through being different (the only Muslim in a place of work or school, or being red-haired), or from being sensitive. It can come about from being a failure, unpopular, being young, being old, being un-sporty, even caring for others can make us vulnerable - but essentially everyone is vulnerable in some way, though some more than others.

So if you are alive, you are vulnerable, and being honest about it is not only humbling - it is part of overcoming

that vulnerability through wisdom and understanding. Combining honesty about being vulnerable, as well as being honest about loving power, helps us to say, “Okay I made a mistake,” or “Okay I lost this one but I will try again”, or “Okay they don’t like me but God loves me.”

We need to come to terms with both the bully and the victim within, and make peace with them both. Only then can we begin to acknowledge the importance of power, whilst caring for the vulnerable aspects in ourselves and in others. This is real power as opposed to oppression; power exercised with love and justice and humanity, the kind of power that inspires us because we know that this is power well used, power that benefits us as individuals and as a society, and which makes us better people. • Counselling can be a great support for children and adults. For contacts try:

• Islamic counselling www.islamiccounselling.info • The British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy www.bacp.co.uk • Childline at www.childline.org.uk/Explore/ Bullying • NSPCC at www.nspcc.org.uk or www.gov.uk/bullying-at-school • ACAS www.acas.org.uk/index

Sabnum Dharamsi is a therapist and co-founder of Islamic Counselling Training www.islamiccounselling.info

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y l e n o L

e n o l a r e v e n t Bu Loneliness and isolation can affect our mental and physical wellbeing. Batool Haydar suggests three ways to face and overcome this growing social problem

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T

he world is bursting at its seams. Seven billion of us inhabit it already with thousands more being born every day. And yet – ironically – the greatest disease that threatens us is loneliness.

divorce rates are leaving many not only alone again, but emotionally battered by the process and because of the lack of strong family circles, the elderly are perhaps the greatest victims of this phenomenon.

Surveys say that anomie - the feeling of not belonging - is on the rise and according to the UK’s Mental Health Foundation one in ten Britons admit to feeling lonely.

Muslim communities can no longer deny the fact that their members face the same dilemmas as all other people.

We can’t turn a blind eye to the fact that our youth are marrying later and complaining that it is harder and harder to find compatible partners. We can’t ignore the growing number of widows, widowers and divorcees; men and women left - often unexpectedly - single and vulnerable. We can’t forget how many elderly are being placed and left in homes every year.

Loneliness is a multi-faceted problem.

Everybody has a unique circumstance or reasons for what affects them the most, but on a basic level, we are all human and have the same essential needs. The feeling of isolation that overcomes us so many times is because we perceive ourselves as being unable to fit into society or find people we can relate to.

As teens we will do anything to fit into the crowd; as youth we move from one relationship to another in our quest not to be alone and as we grow older the stigma of being single hangs heavy over the heads of those of us who haven’t yet found a life partner. Everywhere we turn, we are encouraged to be more social, more outgoing or ‘part-of-thecrowd’.

When the real world fails us, the cyber world is simply waiting at the other end of a click. We can tweet, post, share, like, comment, follow and ‘friend’ until we have carved out a social cyber-haven that we feel we belong to. Our online friends become the people we turn to for company even if we have never met some of them. With so many options, it’s almost impossible to find anyone who is alone and yet so many of us are lonely anyway.

Peer pressure makes pre-teens and teenagers feel alienated for the most insignificant reasons, some to the point of self-harm and suicide. Adults are increasingly spending time working away and building their careers at the expense of family and social relationships; if they do socialise it’s on a professional or superficial level because they don’t have the time to invest in anything deeper. Death and spiralling

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We are human and at various stages of our lives, we all succumb to feelings of being lost, vulnerable, dissatisfied and afraid. However our greatest saving grace is the very faith that we sometimes feel is the cause of our alienation.

The principles, advice and structure of Islamic societies allows individuals to not only overcome the feeling of loneliness but to grow from it to achieve inner peace to such an extent that they then actually seek out solitude for its many spiritual and emotional benefits.

Perhaps by understanding that loneliness affects all three of our founding aspects i.e. mind, body and soul - we can take a balanced approach in how to deal with this problem and start the journey towards healing. The three suggestions below are simple, but can make a huge difference if implemented.

also mentions that “God Loves the honest craftsmen.”

be able to reach out and touch another human being in a caring way.

Whether you want to collect stamps or learn woodwork the sense of involvement and achievement that result from having a hobby help give you a sense of worth and fulfilment.

An important part of recreating family ties is reaching out to children and the elderly. Children remind us of our innocence and joy, they inspire us and revive our spirits while the elderly usually just want some company and someone who will listen to them. We can form a link by taking positivity from children and passing it on to the elderly and thus become the essential link between two generations.

Regardless of the hobby you choose, there will be new things to learn about yourself in the process and new avenues through which to explore the wonders of God. Through your experiences you will inevitably come across other likeminded hobbyists and begin to make connections with people who enjoy the same things that you do.

Hobby groups are some of the strongest communities and something that starts off as an interest can become an uplifting, lifetime investment. Starting off with the knowledge and intention that you are doing something that is recommended by your faith also helps to develop you spiritually and fun activities can become acts of ibadah (worship)!

RESPECT YOUR BODY Practice Silat-ar-Rahm (doing good to relatives)

ENCOURAGE YOUR MIND Get a hobby

One of the causes of loneliness is a breakdown of relationships between family members. Our closest bonds are those we have with our blood relations, so when these become distanced or non-existent, it has a huge impact on us. The Qur’an states: “Indeed God enjoins justice and kindness and generosity towards relatives....” (16:90) and in his lifetime The Prophet Muhammad(s) repeatedly stressed this, in words and in practice.

Learning a craft has been encouraged by the Prophet Muhammad(s) and the Imams(a) after him because being able to work and create with your hands is a fulfilling ability. Ali bin Abi Talib in Nahjul Balagha says that “The value of a person depends upon the art and skill that he has attained” and elsewhere

Sometimes, simply calling up a relative you’ve not spoken to in a long time will be enough to begin the journey towards healing. Visiting, sitting together, even something as simple as a warm welcoming hug, can keep you going for the day. Remember, loneliness isn’t just about the emotional disconnect from people, but also the physical need to

It was after all the gradual disruption of the family structure that started the downward spiral to the loneliness epidemic we now suffer. Rebuilding that structure is the best way to start curing ourselves because when we are busy giving of ourselves, sharing the rich experiences and learning invaluable lessons, there is little time left to be lonely.

what you would be doing), but you will feel a sense of calm almost straight away and once that happens you can then consciously shift your attention to the words you are reciting, the One you are remembering and the fact that in reality, you are not alone, but always in the presence of Love.

If we can begin to appreciate our own value as part of the perfect design of an All-Wise Creator, we will begin to see the beauty in both being alone and part of a society. We must always remember there is a universe within ourselves and that in our journey of exploration within - and without - we are never without the company, support, strength and love of God. •

EXPLORE YOUR SOUL Indulge in Dhikr (Rememberanceof God) One of the overwhelming emotions that attack a person when loneliness sets in is unrest. There is a feeling that one must be somewhere else, doing something else. This restlessness then leads to frustration and a seeking of release in different, sometimes dangerous ways including substance abuse, depression and suicide.

That is why we are told: “Verily in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest!” (Qur’an 13:28). This verse is commonly mentioned, enough that most Muslims know of it, but because we recite dhikr as a part of our daily prayers and supplications, we sometimes become complacent about its true value and effect on us. A fact stated

by God however, cannot be anything but true, so the next time loneliness sets in, try reciting any dhikr you know - the simpler, the better.

To begin with it may feel like you’re chanting a mantra (which is exactly

17

“Deeds not Words”

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On 13 October 1905 the struggle of the Suffragettes started with a request for the right to vote. Six years later the movement gave its first martyr for the cause of women’s rights. Yvonne Ridley recalls the story of Emily Wilding Davison

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E

ach stone was lovingly wrapped in paper bearing the handwritten words: ‘Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God’. The missiles were then carefully aimed by hand with a passion at politicians, their moving cars, government property and any other target to maximise publicity for the cause.

As you read that paragraph what images did you imagine in your mind’s eye? A Palestinian youth standing in front of an Israeli tank? Perhaps a revolutionary

She was appalled at the low regard for women in a Victorian society where they were denied real opportunities in the workplace and, more importantly, the right to vote was also denied. While the male servants of a large house could go out and vote on election day the female head who employed him could not.

And while Queen Victoria shamefully believed that women should not involve themselves in politics the Suffragettes thought otherwise and refused to be treated as second class citizens.

Hugh’s College, Oxford. She obtained a first-class honours in her final exams, although again she was reminded of the inequalities women faced because female scholars in that period were not awarded degrees at Oxford.

In 1906 she joined the Women’s Social and Political Union led by Emmeline Pankhurst.

Davison went on to become one of the leading lights in the movement because of her daring and determination to highlight the injustices faced by women.

Acting on the suffragette slogan ‘Deeds not Words’, Davison’s protest against the refusal of Britain’s rulers to grant votes for women turned her into a martyr for democracy and women’s rights.

Despite newspapers writing off her actions as those of a suicidal, mad woman Emily’s intentions were far more noble in that she was trying to raise awareness about women’s rights and equality by pinning the colours of the suffragette movement onto the King’s horse.

Isn’t it ironic that while the maledominated media, government and establishment of the day tried to silence the demands for women’s rights way back then, a century later some officials from the male-dominated racing world tried to do the very same?

women are still facing inequality and oppression. It’s vital that the sacrifice she made in the fight for democracy and women’s rights is never forgotten.

census documents that were uncovered state that Emily Wilding Davison was found ‘hiding in the crypt’ in the Houses of Parliament.

As it turns out, thanks to committed activists – both men and women – the spirit of Emily was remembered on the 100th anniversary of her sacrifice in many different ways.

The following year she was sentenced for her part in an arson attack and jailed for six-months in Holloway Prison.

There were scores of other Suffragettes also being held in the jail where many had gone on hunger strike and were being force-fed. As part of a protest within the prison walls she hurled herself down a 10-metre iron staircase.

Her intention, as she wrote afterwards, was to try and bring a halt to the primitive force-feeding methods … methods, by the way which were subsequently banned because they were deemed so primitive. It’s interesting to note these same methods are being deployed in Guantanamo prison today despite global condemnation.

Personally I would like to see her image on English banknotes as a permanent reminder of her greatness although there is a plaque in the House of Commons marking another daring feat

It’s probably worth remembering that while Emily was still unconscious in hospital Queen Alexandra, the then Queen Mother, asked one of her flunkeys to send a telegram to the jockey who was recuperating at home. The note read: “Queen Alexandra was very sorry indeed to hear of your sad accident caused through the abominable conduct of a brutal lunatic woman.”

A few months after her release Emily became the movement’s first martyr when she was trampled under the King’s Horse, Anmer, during the Epsom Derby in June 1913.

There are those who still think this was a deliberate act by a woman who felt the Suffragette movement needed a martyr to ramp up the case for women’s rights including the right to vote.

Supporters of the Emily Wilding Davison Memorial Campaign, the group set up to commemorate the centenary anniversary, ignored the bleatings of the Establishment and organised a series of stunning events to remember this iconic woman. from somewhere in the Arab world or maybe one of the very many anti-capitalist protestors in recession-hit Europe or a member of the Occupy movement on America’s Wall Street.

The denial of the right to vote outraged Emily who had already experienced being treated as a lesser person in the male dominated world of academia, despite her own brilliance.

The fact is the stones were thrown by a former private school governess who had gained a reputation as a militant and violent campaigner, for women’s rights … in Victorian Britain.

She had won a bursary to Royal Holloway College in 1891 to study literature and modern foreign languages but dropped out after the death of her father because her mother was unable to pay the fees of £30 per term. She was forced to become a private governess and later became a schoolteacher before raising enough money to study Biology, Chemistry, English Language and Literature at St

Emily Wilding Davison, although born in London, had roots in my native North East where her heroic deeds are often recalled today as a source of great pride and admiration.

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Earlier this year various memorial services and events were held around the UK to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Emily and while many of us felt the occasion deserved to be marked with a minute’s silence at the iconic Epsom Derby, this small act of remembrance was rebuffed by the very same Establishment attitude that tried to crush the movement for women’s rights 100 years ago.

Emily was fatally injured when she deliberately ran onto the track during the 1913 Derby.

In the end the powers that be did agree to have a ceremony at the racecourse in which the great, great, great niece of Emily unveiled a plaque to mark her sacrifice.

Bearing in mind the world’s largest ever commemorative silence is held annually at 11am on 11 November for the war dead when every street, every town, every city in the UK comes to a halt with tens of millions taking part, the excuses coming out of Epsom over a refusal for 60 seconds in memory of Emily Wilding Davison look pretty weak and pathetic.

The truth is a hundred years on we as

I personally feel that she had set out to pin a sash bearing the movement’s colours to the King’s Horse knowing that it would create huge headlines.

However, I also believe she knew it was a perilous thing to do but she was prepared to pay the blood price for women to get the vote. performed by her. That great, elder statesman Tony Benn, the former MP made sure her efforts would not be forgotten but you still have to try and hunt it down.

The plaque marks the night of 2 April 1911, the eve of the census, when she sneaked in to Parliament and hid in a tiny broom cupboard in St Mary Undercroft, the chapel of the Palace of Westminster. She stayed there overnight so that on the census form she could legitimately give her place of residence as the House of Commons. The 1911

This is why I think it is important for all women to exercise their right to vote in every forthcoming election.

The price of British women’s right to vote carries a very high price and the blood of a great woman. •

British journalist Yvonne Ridley is a supporter of the Emily Wilding Davison Memorial Campaign.

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ARTS

Painting Sabah Arbilli

Art Editor Moriam Grillo

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Mats Abdel Karim Cederberg

Work of such beauty can only emerge from sincere and passionate study and practice

currently studying for a Masters degree with visual, Islamic and traditional arts in The Princes School in central London to develop his skills even further.

Cederberg’s art conveys something of his sincere and noble disposition. It is also wonderful to see how his input brings out creativity in the children he works with. A selection of his work is available to view on Facebook.

Mats Cederberg is a Swedish artist working in the UK. His work is based around the ancient craft of Arabic calligraphy, which he uses as motif and emblem to create decorative art pieces for the home and other interiors.

I met him at Islamia School in London where he was running a workshop for primary schoolchildren. The workshop was on Islamic geometry, one of Cederberg’s many talents in his artistic repertoire; he also designs ceramic tiles and plates, calligraphic murals in cloth, canvas or wood as well as mosaics using materials such as marble and gilded glass.

With Arabic calligraphy as his starting point, Cederberg has developed his talents in many traditional Islamic arts. He is

Ceramics Shahida Ahmed

“Art is a tool to use to create dialogue in the community inspiring women and children. It is a platform for all to share and it enables cohesion and sharing of all cultural arts in a western world.”

Shahida Ahmed is a Ceramic Artist of Pakistani heritage based in Nelson, Lancashire.

She has travelled internationally to exhibit her work and is currently presenting new work in Qatar. Although a student of Jim Robinson and David Roberts, Ahmed is essentially selftaught and has developed her craft to reflect her personal experiences in relation to heritage, religion and cultural identity. Although Ahmed works with clay, her work’s main references are Arabic calligraphy and geometry. She says that her work is the culmination of reflection and dhikr (invocational remembrance of God).

Ahmed’s father and uncles were all immigrants who came to the UK to work as weavers in the cotton mills. Her father remained connected to the textile industry and formed his own fashion business years later. Ahmed believes these exposures have had a strong influence on her creative practice and feels that the textures and surface colours in her work are informed by the early experiences of her father bringing home cotton remnants and her mother sewing in the family home.

Her work has an antiquated quality which leans towards the

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“I envisage the lands with the sounds which echo in my ear taking me back to a place where I see harmony and tranquillity. I smell the place and sense my presence and belonging which I capture to share with the audience.”

Born Sabah Maghded Bapir in Arbil, Iraq, in 1977, Sabah is an Iraqi-British artist based in Pendle, Lancashire. He chose the professional name of Sabah Arbilli as a tribute to his place of birth and first teacher, the calligraphy master, Bijart Arbilli.

Although Sabah is a master calligrapher, he approaches his craft in a painterly fashion using materials more akin to a painter than a scribe.

Sabah believes that his understanding of the principles of calligraphy deepened when he began to study engineering, allowing his work to be more accurate and precise.

primitive. Using oxides to stain the clay and raku firings to create spontaneous surface decorations, Ahmed creates pieces which convey contemporary themes whilst being clearly rooted in Islamic tradition.

Using both ink and acrylic on canvas, Sabah produces unique work which is breathtakingly beautiful and a joy to behold.

With every brush stoke is the confirmation of ability and knowing which is not just taught but mastered with years of patience and considered practice.

Sabah recently took part in a live event entitled ‘Metaphoric’ in which he created 22 consecutive paintings on 1x1 metre canvases on 22 consecutive days.

This work is currently being exhibited in Qatar.

Architecture

Speaking of her work, Ahmed says “My work is recognised for being traditional; by this I mean the influence of heritage plays a huge role in my work. I use Islamic calligraphy, patterns, buildings and lots of textures and colour. The main body of my work is in clay and when you see my clay works they look like old authentic pieces from many hundreds of years ago. The colours are earthy and blues inspired by the blue mosque in Istanbul. The clay forms are amalgamated textures which fuse in a very high order to show traditional art.”

Ahmed has pieces on display in the private collections of Prince Charles, David Cameron and Jermaine Jackson as well as in a number of galleries in the Middle East.

Born in Hebron, Palestine in 1979, Harouni is a very thought provoking artist whose work reflects the social, political and economic status of his people. I was struck by his piece entitled

Qalandia 2067, which essentially is a three dimensional mock-up of an urban compound. It is named, in part, after one of the main checkpoints crossing through the West Bank and from a date

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in the future, one hundred years after the beginning of the Israeli occupation.

At first, it appears to represent a sedate architectural presentation of what could easily be a housing tenement located in any ghetto. But, on closer inspection, it becomes apparent that it is in fact an environment engineered to curtail and subdue a once burgeoning civilisation, a political settlement.

One of a series of five scale models, the others incorporating an airport and checkpoint crossing, Qalandia 2067 is

Masterpiece

filled with pessimism. The sites, which reflect progressive regression alongside a futuristic narrative, leave one with the feeling that the outlook is grim.

As a work of art, it is both unnerving and arresting; one cannot help but feel a sense of repulsion at its gruesome lack of architectural finesse. The antennae which clutter the rooftops represent a preoccupation with secondary themes; wanted abstraction.

Amidst the dilapidation, each light in the windows reflects a life, contained for political

Khaled Jarrar

This opening speaks volumes. It symbolises the humility of those individuals who exist on a day to day basis under occupation, reveals the lengths to which they will go in order to escape the police state and reflects the tyranny of its constructors through the plight of its victims. This constructed replica bears testimony to a human tragedy and serves as a reminder of daily struggles which barely reach the headlines.

It is a memoir of those confronted by an eight metre high barrier in what is a modern-day apartheid.

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With this work, Jarrar invites the audience, through the oddity of projected experience, to negotiate the constricted perimeters of what it means to be Palestinian and to live under the daily rigours and hostility of occupation. The exposition reminds one of persecution, tolerance and protest and highlights the oft-forgotten West Bank.

It is a testimony to those who have been silenced and a living proof of abject tyranny. It is also a reference to intifada, struggle, hope, and endeavour.

The wall itself has an orifice which symbolically resembles the shape of the map of historic Palestine, a region which has continually been threatened

Heritage Islamic lamp with inscription C. 7th-8th century CE

Byzantine form lamp with Arabic inscriptions. Made simply from earthenware clay, these lamps bear no complex

decoration or glaze.

The slipper shaped design is a common lamp form which has been used for centuries and across many cultures.

The early Islamic lamps are a continuation of Byzantine lamps. Decorations were initially stylised in the form of birds, grains, trees, plants or flowers.

Then they became entirely geometric or linear with raised dots and Arabic script.

The place to be by external powers for centuries.

to that which segregates the West Bank. By creating an external wall within an interior space, Jarrar explores the narrative of generations of displaced people through his design of a microscopic replica. This ingenious exercise enables the plight of a region to be experienced by an international audience and spark debate where communication is freer and speaking out less perilous.

His first UK solo exhibition “Whole in the Wall”, at Ayyam gallery in London, was based around a site specific installation made of concrete which separates the long gallery space into two. The wall itself is constructed of concrete slabs erected side by side, to create a divide that shares an eerie resemblance

Harouni is currently exhibiting at the Venice Biennale.

Concrete Installation by

“I don’t do political art; I’m simply reflecting my own experiences”

Khaled Jarrar is a very interesting young artist. Born in Jenin, Palestine, in 1976, he has experienced a lifetime of conflict and occupation. A former Captain of the Palestinian Presidential Guard, Jarrar served alongside the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, only suspending his service when Israeli soldiers severely maimed the former President.

gain, highlighting the vast chasm between the perpetrator and its prey. It speaks of a struggle brought to fruition in response to an enigma of motive.

It is this narrative which inspired an absurd representation of a man-made monstrosity, designed unforgivably to uphold man-made occupation.

international art. Large open spaces known as pavilions are constructed to house the work of various countries.

Some 88 countries are taking part this year, with participants coming from as far afield as, Angola, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Bahamas and Chile.

The Venice Biennial Through November 24

This year also sees the largest Arab presence at the event to date. The artwork pictured is that of Bahraini contemporary artist Mariam Haji.

The Venice Biennial is the world’s oldest and most prestigious art festival.

Every two years, Italy invites artists from around the world to take part in the event which celebrates contemporary

own words reflects “peace, but with security.”

Gharem re-created a scaled down gilded dome of a mosque and used the pointed crescent moon from the top of the structure to prop up one side. Beneath that he placed a dove (the traditional symbol of peace). The construction is used as a metaphor; a primitive trap, precarious and dangerous, that would fall on the bird if it was disturbed. •

In order to enter the gallery space each visitor has to choose to either walk the length of the wall or climb, uncomfortably, through the hole. Jarrar believes this is a metaphor which has political currency whilst also serving as a reminder of the atrocities of yesteryear.

With ‘Whole in the Wall’, Jarrar reflects a weakness in an apparent stronghold, which, in turn, alludes to a blot on the landscape or fly in the ointment of opposing ideals. If nothing else, it keeps the trials of a nation in the public consciousness.

“In order for there to be reconciliation there has to be recognition that a wrong has occurred.” - Khaled Jarrar Khaled Jarrar lives and works in Ramallah, and is currently exhibiting at the Venice Biennale

‘Abdulnasser Gharem: Art of Survival’ was published in London October 2011 and is available online.

Abdulnasser Gharem was born in 1973 in the Saudi Arabian city of Khamis Mushait. He is a celebrated artist as well as a lieutenant-colonel in the Saudi army. With no formal training, Gharem has managed to carve a niche for himself in the international art market whilst producing insightful and dynamic art work which successfully pushes the boundaries whilst managing to satisfy the Saudi censors.

Ghareb recently made history when an auction of his work in Dubai grossed over $800,000, establishing him as the highest selling artist in the Arab world. Gharem donated the proceeds to charity to foster art education in his homeland.

His record breaking installation ‘Message/Messenger’ is a pastiche of postmodern surrealism which in his

Abdulnasser currently lives and works in Riyadh.

He is also currently exhibiting at the Venice Biennale

Moriam Grillo is a visual artist, broadcaster, author and part time art teacher.

She holds Bachelor degrees in Photography & Film and Ceramics. Her current work involves two public Islamic commissions.

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Book review

Are we all

Moors?

S

oon another ship followed “Santa Maria” (Christopher Columbus’s ship) in its path to the New World: ‘S Maria de Bogoña’. It had purchased its 300 slaves from São Tomé in West Africa and disembarked the remaining 251 men, women and children in Santo Domingo in Hispaniola (an island in the Caribbean, now divided between Haiti and Dominican Republic).

In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas; in the same year the last of the remaining Muslim rulers were defeated and expelled from Andalucía in Spain. Is it really a coincidence? This has been the subject of several debates and books. Yet the fact that the Reconquista (expelling Muslims from Spain) and Conquest of Paradise (after Ridley Scott’s film of 1992) both happened in the same year still fascinates many writers. For Anouar Majid, Reconquista is the historical moment in which modern Europe was

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The legacy of the expulsion of Moors by Christians is still with us and modern European identity is shaped by this distinction and confrontation, according to author Anouar Majid. Mohsen Biparva reviews his book ‘We Are All Moors’

born, and therefore the image of the Moor (Muslims of Spain) had and still has a significant impact on the modern European psyche. As Christianity travelled across the Atlantic, its imagined opponent, the Moor travelled there too.

Majid claims that in the last 500 years, since the defeat of Muslims in Iberia and the conquest of the New World, the West has never been worried about its cultural and racial hegemony until recently. The growing number of Muslim immigrants in Europe and the ever increasing population of Hispanic and Mexican immigrants in the United States have been the source of a great anxiety for the last several years. This anxiety, based on the feeling that the West is going to lose its control and dominance over those minorities may be a recent phenomenon, but the image of the West’s “other”, says the author, has always been the Moor.

He argues in particular that the West and Islam have never been parted as

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some may assume. In fact they have Islam and the Moorish tradition. Indeed The birth of the Renaissance was been travelling companions since at Jews and Arabs were indiscernible (both also the re-birth of anti-Semitism, a least 1492 despite the efforts of zealous known as Semites) in the European phenomenon that would be repeated advocates of Christian priority or imagination well into contemporary in nineteenth and twentieth century national homogeneity. He Europe, for both were also argues that without inextricably linked to ..the key concepts of the book is the idea that in a Islam there would be no all-consuming purpose of European identity and conquering Islam. It was symbolic and metaphorical sense, all monodies living in no America. When King indeed not surprising, the West after 1492 are perceived as the descendents of Ferdinand and Queen because Jews had always the Moors.

Isabella sponsored been treated as Muslim Christopher Columbus’s allies. ‘Jews seemed to be mission to the “East” via the natural allies of the caliph, or of western Atlantic route, their ultiMuslims, because of their similar mate goal was nothing less than theological and ritual practices the recapture of Jerusalem. It is and because the Jews of western argued that before confronting Europe had come, directly or Islam there was no such thing indirectly, from Muslim lands, as a European identity as where many still maintained documented by the acclaimed contact.’ Majid also shows how historian David Levering Lewis prominent Jewish figures like who shows that the terms “EuroBritish prime minister Benjamin penes” and “European” were Disraeli (1804 – 1881), who saw first coined by Isidore Pacensis, themselves as the natural allies an eighth-century Andalusian of Arabs, contributed to the rise priest, to describe the new idenof Arab nationalism (Disraeli tity of Christians who defeated himself claimed that ‘God never Muslim armies near Poitiers in spoke except to an Arab’).

732.

The strong affinity between Jews Majid wants to show that the and Muslims was disrupted by spectre of this early confrontation Zionism, with its deep Eurohas never left the consciousness pean Orientalist prejudices of the West, neither the figure of according to the author. He the Moor, as the prime opponent shows that initially the (concept or the image of the “other”. The of) Mizrahim (Arab Jews) did Moor is not only someone who not exist before Israel was is religiously Muslim but ‘even established and only came into more importantly, he or she picture when European Zionism Benjamin Disraeli is also a figure that stands for began to exclude Arab Jews; they anyone who is not considered were simply known as Jews wherto be part of the social ever they lived. He quotes mainstream.’ Therefore from Ben-Gurion: ‘We do the key concept of the not want the Israelis to Jürgen Habermas: ‘Christianity and nothing else is the book is the idea that in a be Arabs. It is our duty ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights symbolic and metaphorto fight against the spirit and democracy, the benchmarks of Western civilisation.’ ical sense, all Muslims of the Levant that ruins living in the West after individuals and societies.’

1492 are perceived as the Despite the long running history. He then shows that anti-Semidescendants of the Moors. In his view Arab-Israeli conflict that in Majid’s view tism, which condemned Jews to excluthis links Muslims to Hispanics and ‘has stifled virtually all expression of sion because of their racial unfitness, even the Jews in Europe. romanticised kinship or even pragmatic has now given way to Islamophobia, commonality between the children According to Majid, in most of Europe’s a new political platform that would of Isaac and Ishmael […]’there is still modern history, Jews and Muslims were channel the European Right wing’s no reason to believe that Jews cannot both seen as the archetypical “other”. hatred of Jews into a more permissible coexist in peace and justice with PalesMeanwhile many Jews identified with condemnation of Islam. tinians.

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The book then continues to explain the two heirs to the Moorish legacy, Hispanic Americans and European Muslims. It is interesting that both are recognised by Samuel Huntington; first Muslims were portrayed as the natural enemy of the West in his book Clash of Civilisations, and the latter, the Hispanic wave (mostly Mexican immigrants) as the immediate threat to American integrity in his next book Who We Are? Huntington believes that the so-called cement in the structure of the ‘American Creed’ is the ‘product of the distinct Anglo-Protestant culture of the founding settlers of America.’ This was formed by the the ‘key elements’ of the English language, Christianity, religious commitment, English concept of the rule of law and also ‘dissenting Protestant values of individualism’. To Huntington, Majid claims, ‘America is not the so-called nation of immigrants but “a society of settlers” mostly from the British Isles’.

In this context Hispanics who are far from being ‘Anglo-Saxon Protestants’, have become the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. By one estimate they will make up around 25 percent of the population by 2040. This is while new immigrants (in contrast to the earlier waves of arrivals to America through posts like Ellis Island) are more likely to resist assimilation and will not identify fully with mainstream American culture. Huntington knows well that there is no national project without its scapegoats. He also accepts that ‘it is the attacks on America, whether real or imagined, that unites people and keeps the deconstruction and multiculturalism at bay for a while’. Majid argues that soon after Muslims were contained (mostly through the ‘war on terror’) politicians turned their attention to Latin immigrants as the ‘scapegoat’. He then talks about similarities between the condition of Muslims in Europe and Hispanics in the United States, showing how both are trapped in a racially motivated exclusion.

Anouar Majid quotes from the AngloFrench author Hilaire Belloc, writing in 1938, when there was almost no pres-

ence of Islam in Europe: ‘millions of modern people of the white civilisation […] have forgotten about Islam. […] It (Islam) is as a fact the most formidable enemy which our civilisation has had.’

He then continues by referring to remarks by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas: ‘Christianity and nothing else is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights and democracy, the benchmarks of Western civilisation.’ He then argues that because of the presence of Islam in its midst, the secular West is now going back to rediscover its Christian roots, in a defensive reaction against Muslims. Western Christianity in Majid’s view, whether in its Anglo-Protestant American or European form, finds Latinos and Muslims similar to its primordial foe, the Moors.

The book is well documented and brilliantly researched, with lot of detail, not only very useful for students as well as scholars of history and humanities, but also very readable, and even necessary for the general public, especially now. •

We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and Other Minorities, Anouar Majid, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis/ London, 2009 Anouar Majid is professor of English and director of the Centre for Global Humanities at the University of New England in Maine.

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Stepping Back from the Brink of War? 30

Shuttle diplomacy has created a possibility to avert a military strike against Syria but the axe of a new war spearheaded by Washington still hangs over the Middle East, writes Reza Murshid

31

Moscow, some of whom are now fighting along with other rebel groups to topple Assad. Syria has always been home to a sizeable Chechen population.

(If Putin had sufficient space in that op-ed piece, he would have probably mentioned the veiled threat that he allegedly received during his meeting in August with Saudi Intelligence Minister Prince Bandar bin Sultan. Unconfirmed reports have indicated that Prince Bandar attempted first to entice Russia with lucrative oil and gas deals and when that failed to whet Putin’s appetite, he suggested that Chechen fighters may launch attacks on the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

T

he world has not seen such frantic last-minute diplomatic manoeuvrings in years between the former Cold War foes, Washington and Moscow.

An agreement reached between the two long-standing rivals has for now at least, averted a military strike against Damascus.

gations that Syrian government forces were involved in the chemical attack.

Obama Upstaged by Putin

effective that even Republican tycoon Donald Trump admitted that it was well done without appearing malicious.

While remaining cordial throughout his piece, Putin took issues with Obama’s appeal to ‘American exceptionalism’, saying that all countries regardless of their size were equal because ‘God created us equal.’ Putin was appealing According to the deal, if Syria hands to the majority of Americans who over the details of its chemical weapons harboured misgivings about Obama’s stockpiles, then it has until path to war. He was also November to allow United appealing to a world that Nations inspectors access to is tired of American interWashington appears too eager to punish Assad the chemical weapons sites. vention and its disastrous The agreement also stipuconsequences over the past to even present its proofs. Obama has said lates that the destruction of decades. that he is ‘highly confident’ that Assad’s forces the weapons would have to Putin reminded Americans used the chemical weapon. But being ‘highly be completed by mid 2014. that any attack on Syria Moscow’s position from the outset was that there is no proof that the government of Bashar al-Assad was behind the chemical attack that killed hundreds of civilians.

confident’ is not enough to stage a devastating war against a country. As a lawyer he should understand the difference between what is ‘highly confident’ and what is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’

Russian President Vladimir Putin contended that the chemical weapons could have been unleashed by the rebels with the intention to provoke a military strike by Western powers to reverse recent gains made by the Syrian military. Putin consistently demanded proof from the American side. Putin even stated that if no proof is shown, then no proof actually exists. He went so far as calling Kerry a liar for his alle-

32

While Obama was under fire at home for ‘not acting like a commander-inchief’, Putin stole the show on the world stage by pursuing a much more active diplomacy. Putin even took the war to Obama’s own turf by printing a well-written op-ed in the New York Times, in which he talked directly to

the American people. Putin’s op-ed did not sit well with John McCain, the neo-con US Senator who called the piece an insult to the intelligence of every American. Still living in the Cold War era, McCain said that he also wanted to address the Russian people by writing for Pravda, the now defunct mouthpiece of the Soviet Communist Party. But Putin’s piece was so sober and

would be in violation of international law if it did not have the blessing of the United Nations, thereby indirectly calling the United States a ‘potential outlaw’.

The Russian president went on to warn the Americans how the extremist elements among the rebels fighting in Syria may threaten the security of Western nations and Russia, reminding them how the ‘freedom fighters’ in Libya recently moved to Mali to cause problems there.

There have been long-standing tensions between Chechen separatists and

Syria, the Undoing of the Obama Effect

Every presidency has its highs and lows.

Obama’s high moments were in his first term when he was the darling of the Western press and the liberal establishment in the United States. If Obama had decided not to run for a second term, he would have been remembered much more fondly by posterity.

The second term, however, has been plagued with a number of serious mistakes on his part, most notably: • Giving a high priority to drone attacks which has destroyed the image of Obama as a man of peace and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

• Condoning US government espionage on not only American citizens but also on America’s own European allies such as Germany • His persecution of the

whistle blower Edward Snowden and the tussle with Russia over his extradition •

Adopting incoherent positions vis-à-vis the aftermath of the Arab Spring (the military coup against Morsi in Egypt, which he has yet to condemn)

A Sense of Déjà vu

But aside from the above damaging

examples, most observers believe that the case of Syria has had the most deleterious effect on Obama’s standing both at home and abroad. At home he is seen as vacillating and indecisive; a Republican commentator called him ‘Commander-in Confusion, instead of Commander-in-Chief’. He is also seen as incoherent at home. Many Americans have asked why Obama tolerated the deaths of over 110,000 and displacement of millions in Syria and was only moved to action by the deaths of over 1000?

destruction was beyond doubt.

When Obama kept referring to the 100-year old convention against the use of chemical weapons, Americans with a better memory remembered how the United States remained silent two and half decades ago when Saddam Hussein unleashed his chemical weapons on Iranian soldiers as well as the defenceless Kurds of Halabja.

According to an Associated Press report, certain unnamed intelligence operatives in the U.S. had serious doubts that chemical attacks were carried out on Assad’s orders. Some officials even expressed that ‘the rebels could have carried out the attack in a callous and calculated attempt to draw the West into the war.’ The AP report goes on to add that this suspicion was not included in the official intelligence report. How convenient!

Abroad, Obama is seen as every bit as hawkish as his predecessor George W. Bush because he keeps ranting about the threat of force as a panacea in his dealings with smaller independent countries.

His favourite phrase regarding Syria and Iran has been ‘all options are on the table’. John Kerry mimicked his boss during his press conference in Israel when he said ‘to accomplish that [dismantling the Syrian chemical weapons] the threat of force remains.’

If only Obama had provided the proof that he says his intelligence team has given him, instead of making the threats. No smoking gun has yet been presented to the world. The mainstream press in Washington even has doubts that Assad himself ordered the attack. A decade after the United States failed to find the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) after invading Iraq, the United States is making a similar blunder with Syria. This time it will not attack Syria because it has such weapons - it will be attacking because it believes Damascus has used them. In the race to attack Iraq, then CIA Director George Tenet insisted in 2002 that US intelligence showing Iraq had weapons of mass

Obama has said that he is ‘highly confident’ that Assad’s forces used chemical weapons. But being ‘highly confident’ is not enough to stage a military strike against a country. As a lawyer he should understand the difference between what is ‘highly confident’ and what is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. In any civilised court of law, the yardstick for issuing a verdict is not conjecture, even highly confident conjectures, but a certainty which is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.

Optimists believe that the agreement reached between Russia and the United States will not only end the possible US strike on Syria but will also help the creation of a negotiated settlement to end the war in Syria.

But those who have been watching the Middle East and North Africa over the past five decades can still hear the drums of war despite this agreement.

The pessimists also look at the history of other nations, such as Libya under Mu’ammar Qaddafi, and draw parallels.

They say even if Syria is not attacked now, it will be attacked after it turns over its chemical arsenal because it will be considered an easier target. Syria and Libya are two different societies, and one scenario cannot be replicated automatically in another. But let us not forget that it was only a decade after Qaddafi decommissioned his chemical arsenal that he was overthrown. •

Reza Murshid is a political analyst and a freelance writer.

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Egypt

and the Case

f o Mummi

fied

Politics

C

an you imagine a political party waiting for almost a century for an opportunity to rule the country, finally having a chance at it only to blow it within a year through the incompetence of its leaders.

This is what has happened to the Muslim Brothrehood in Egypt, a party founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, a school teacher who advocated the thesis that Islam must influence not only the affairs of the individual believer but also every aspect of socio-political life.

Following the toppling of Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011, Egyptians went to the polls to elect their new president in the first free elections in the country’s history. The front runners in the race were Mohammad Morsi, a member of Muslim Brotherhood, and an army general viewed by many as too close to the ancien regime. Morsi triumphed over his main rival but his victory was not a landslide, ostensibly making it more difficult for him and his party to push ahead with the party’s agenda to Islamise Egypt.

The Muslim Brotherhood is with no stranger to imprisonment and torture, and even martyrdom. Hasan al-Banna was assassinated and the Brotherhood’s

Morsi triumphed over his main rival but his victory was not a landslide, ostensibly making it more difficult for him and his party to push ahead with the party’s agenda to Islamise Egypt.

The four-year rule envisioned for Morsi came to a screeching halt on the anniversary of his accession to power.

On July 3 this year, the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, declared that Morsi had been removed from office, and that the constitution and new presidential and Shura Council elections would be suspended.

Egypt’s deposed president Morsi could have acted differently to avoid the wrath of the people and prevent the military taking advantage of the situation to buttress its rule, argues Masoud Tehrani

Following Morsi’s ouster the Egyptian army has been going after the Brotherhood leaders and activists with a vengeance. In August, the Egyptian Military attempted to remove camps of Muslim Brotherhood supporters from sit-ins being held throughout the country.

In the rapidly escalating violence that ensued, close to a thousand pro-Morsi supporters were killed. The extent of the violence unleashed by the coup regime was such that some of key Egyptian politicians, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Muhammad al-Baradei, who had joined the caretaker government, resigned in protest. (The coup regime has recently extended the state of emergency, and staged massive crackdowns on activists beyond the Muslim Brotherhood. Many activists who took to the streets demanding Morsi’s resignation are feeling apprehensive now about a military that is extending its powers every day.)

In place of Morsi, the military installed Adly Mansour as ‘the acting President of Egypt’. Mr Mansour is a judge who headed the Supreme Constitutional Court prior to taking Morsi’s seat.

key ideologue Sayid Qutb was hanged under Gamal Abd al-Nasir’s regime.

But the Brotherhood has never had so many of its members killed in such a short time.

If It Quacks Like A Coup…

The Muslim Brotherhood is the quintessential Islamic movement of the twentieth century. Many Muslim radicals of the 20th and the 21st centuries looked up to the Muslim Brotherhood in their efforts to address the problems of their societies. (Sayid Qutb’s exegesis

35

of the Holy Qur’an, Fi Dhilal al-Qur’an has been a must read for any young Muslim radical from the 1960’s to the present day.)

So it was no surprise that following Morsi’s ouster, demonstrations were held across the Muslim world to protest the coup and express support for the Brotherhood. There appears to be visible support for the Brotherhood at the grassroots level in different Muslim countries, but the coup in Egypt has divided governments in the Islamic world.

While Turkey and Qatar have backed Morsi, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf monarchies have supported the coup-installed government in Cairo.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyib Erdogan, who has been involved in Islamising projects of his own, is especially apprehensive about the coup in Egypt because he fears that the Kemalists in the Turkish army might get inspiration from across the Mediterranean and end his own Justice and Development’s hold on power.

Both the United States and the UK have been in a quandary regarding the coup. They seem to be happy that Morsi is gone but don’t want to appear to be backing the Egyptian military.

The United States has stopped short of calling the turn of events a coup because this would necessitate the withdrawal of the multi-billion dollar assistance it has given Cairo as a reward for making peace with Israel in 1979.

Right after the coup the authoritarian Arab monarchies were quick to pledge billions of dollars in aid to the postMorsi regime in Cairo, as if to remind Washington that Arab kingdoms are the ones that influence what goes on in the Middle East, not the Americans.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4, British Foreign Secretary William Hague refused to call the turn of events a coup referring to it as a military intervention.

He also avoided condemning the military takeover. Hague said the military intervention was in reaction to Morsi’s shambolic performance in the first year.

(If governments were to be removed

36

from power by military because of poor performance, then Hague’s own Conservative-Lib Dem coalition should have been forced out of office long ago.)

Lessons to Be Learned The unfortunate lesson that Islamists have learned from the turn of events in Egypt is that engaging in the democratic process is an exercise in futility, and nothing is to be gained by playing the democracy game. It is clear to them that the forces of secularism and disbelief are bent on denying Muslims even a limited chance to run their countries.

Perhaps they are right when you add the bitter experience of Egypt to recent experiences of Islamists in Palestine and Algeria. In Palestine the democratically elected Hamas has faced constant opposition from Israel and the United States. Hamas is not seen as the legitimate representative of people in Gaza despite the fact that it won elections in a fair and free democratic process.

In Algeria, a coup in the 1990’s nipped Islamism in the bud before the Islamist election victors even had a chance to rule the country.

tian minority and other Islamic sects, Morsi tended to focus on a narrow version of Islam. Instead of putting the violent extremists in their place, he stood idly by and did not raise a finger to bring the perpetrators of sectarian atrocities to justice.

Christian churches were set ablaze and places of worship belonging to minority Islamic sects were attacked. Only days before his removal from power, an unruly mob attacked a Muslim leader and dragged his body through the streets.

Morsi’s thinking was shaped by the struggle against former dictators, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. A person who is involved in the struggle to overthrow dictators is always at risk of becoming immersed in ideological abstractions. But once in a position of power, a revolutionary is supposed to transcend his ideology. This applies even more to someone like Morsi who came to power without a landslide, and hence lacked the mandate to impose his party’s project on a pluralistic society.

While the use of force against a legitimately elected government needs to be condemned, there are also lessons to be learned from Morsi’s own misadventure. No Muslim is happy seeing the ouster, incarceration and humiliation of a devout Muslim head of state. The setback suffered by the Brotherhood was a setback for Islamic movements around the globe.

Even if Morsi had been elected with a landslide, it would not have been right to ignore the demands of those sections of society who did not vote for him. Egypt has been and remains the cultural powerhouse of the Arab world, home to the great poets, writers, thinkers, singers and artists of the Arab and Islamic world. The Egyptian social fabric is a tapestry of ideas, persuasions and thought. As Morsi discovered, any modern day ruler who ignores this does so at his own peril. •

But instead of pointing the finger at the machinations of the military and the pro-Mubarak forces and dark forces of secularism attempting to stifle the Islamic renaissance, one needs to identify how the agents of the Islamic awakening shot themselves in the foot.

Masoud Tehrani is a London based journalist who writes on the dynamics of the Islamic world.

Instead of being a consensus builder, Morsi tended to act like a Caliph, not realising that Egyptian society was becoming more and more sensitive to his meddling in every field.

Instead of considering himself as the ruler of a country with a sizeable Chris-

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Cover

Journeying to

God

Alexander Khaleeli explores the symbolism of Hajj and discusses the mindset that we, as pilgrims to God’s House, should cultivate to make the most of this sacred journey

I

n some time and place, a man dons a clean, simple travelling robe. He gathers his provisions for the road together in a backpack and bids farewell to his family, knowing that he will not see them for many weeks, months, perhaps even years, or perhaps – if something should happen to him on the way – never again. The man picks up his prayer beads and walking staff and steps out of his home, perhaps joining a stream of others just like him or perhaps utterly alone. With this step, he has begun a journey that will take him across great distances. Maybe he is a medieval English Christian on his way to Canterbury, a Japanese Shintoist visiting the 88 temples of Shikoku, or a lover coming, in quiet, tearful remembrance, to the grave of the beloved.

The act of pilgrimage, of travelling to a place of great spiritual significance, permeates human existence across cultures. It is a journey whose destination is nothing less than the transcendent itself, and whatever their exact significance we believe that these places we visit are where our mundane world meets a supernatural one. These places are frequently imbued with great historical importance as well and by visiting them we affirm our faith in the events, the people and, ultimately, the meaning with which they imbue our existence as human beings. Pilgrimage, then, is as much a spiritual journey as it is a physical one.

According to the Qur’an, the Ka’ba was the first house of worship to be raised for mankind (Qur’an 3:96) and so the first place of pilgrimage for them to visit. As a result, its history as a religious site, the rituals associated with it and its landmarks, are all deeply symbolic of mankind’s innate relationship with God as expressed in the various covenants He has made through his prophets. By traversing its landscape and performing its rites we are connected to the first prophet, Adam, to the forefather of the modern monotheistic faiths, Abraham, and his son, Ishmael, and to the latter’s descendent, the final prophet, Muhammad(s). It is the original pilgrimage from which all others are

derived. By bringing together people from the farthest reaches of the world, the Ka’ba serves not only to unite all the members of the human race with one another, but also the present time with the past and the future, and the human with the divine.

The Hajj symbolises the pre-eternal covenant with God because its centrepiece – the Ka’ba – is, according to the teachings of the Prophet’s Household, the earthy representation of God’s throne (‘arsh) which is both the manifestation of His lordship (rububiyyah) over His creation and the utmost limit of our existence.

The throne is quite literally where our limited world meets the absolute, and our physical journey to the Ka’ba then becomes a symbolic reflection of our spiritual journey to God’s throne. This is why when God instructs Abraham ‘purify My House’ (Qur’an 2:125), He claims ownership of the Ka’ba for Himself (by calling it “My House”), for it marks the very threshold of His transcendence and is a symbol of His mastery and lordship over all Creation.

It is to this that we make our pilgrimage.

But if Hajj is a journey to God, then we must realise that we cannot reach God except through devoting ourselves to Him; this means freeing ourselves from everything that connects us to this world and its pleasures, save that which is absolutely essential and dedicating everything we do to Him, seeking only his pleasure.

This process of detachment begins before we even leave our home; we are supposed to ensure that all of our debts have been paid and that our dependents have provision enough until we return, so that there is nothing (not even a worry!) to tie us to this world and hold us back from giving ourselves fully to God. Then, once we arrive at the miqat (Hajj stations), we complete this transformation by bathing ourselves and donning the ihram (pilgrim’s robes), which symbolises our shedding the trappings of our worldly life, cleansing ourselves of its pollution, and returning to our natural state – the state of purity

and tawhid (monotheism) in which we were created. Our complete detachment from the world is reflected in the fact that we are prohibited from hunting, sexual intercourse and disputation – everything we do and everything that we are must be turned towards God alone.

Freed from the fetters in which we dress ourselves, the rituals of Hajj commence.

Hajj represents perfect obedience to God (‘ubudiyyah) because it involves the performance of acts whose spiritual significance is hidden from the intellect; we can only know the purpose of these rituals from the Lawgiver Himself.

Unlike the acts of prayer, fasting or charity, whose meaning our mind can at least partially discern, the meaning of the Hajj rituals – running between the hills of Safa and Marwa, stoning the pillars at Mina, standing on the plain of Arafat – is lost to us.

But a true servant obeys his master without asking why – the question we are so used to asking in worldly matters and religious ones – and does as he is bid without needing to understand the purpose of his master’s instructions. So by performing these rituals, ignorant as we are of their ultimate significance, we demonstrate our absolute dedication to God and complete submission to him.

In doing so, we go against our worldly habits and our worldly nature; our need to understand the practical reason for everything we do. In doing so, we break the psychological hold that the world has over us and turn our minds from the rational to the supra-rational, from the mundane to the divine, and from the material to the spiritual; we open our minds to God and place ourselves completely in His power. At this moment we are completely receptive to Him and thus ready for Him to transform us however He wills.

It is no accident that when we look at the rituals of the Hajj, we find a symbolic connection between them and the story of Abraham, when he willingly offered his eldest son, Ishmael, as a sacrifice to God. When we stone the devils at Mina, we must remember

Abraham as he threw stones at Satan when he appeared to him in this place and tried to cast doubt into his mind.

Neither Abraham nor Ishmael knew the purpose for which God had asked him to offer up his son, only that it was their duty to submit to God: ‘When he was old enough to assist in his endeavour, he said, ‘My son! I see in a dream that I am sacrificing you. See what you think.’

He said, ‘Father! Do whatever you have been commanded. If Allah wishes, you will find me to be patient’ (Qur’an 71:102).

It was after Abraham(a) had demonstrated this complete and utter devotion to his Lord that God raised him up to the highest level: ‘And when his Lord tested Abraham with certain words, and he fulfilled them, He said, ‘I am making you the leader of mankind’ (Qur’an 2:124) and completed His covenant with him.

So when we set out on our journey to Makkah, we too must cultivate this level of devotion and sacrifice to God, mentally preparing ourselves to offer everything we have to him and to spend our lives in his service. It is not the physical journey to Makkah alone that accomplishes this, any more than it is the bodies of the sacrificial animals that God receives – ‘It is not their flesh or their blood that reaches Allah. Rather it is your God-consciousness that reaches Him’, (Qur’an 22:37) – rather what accomplishes this is our sincere intention to attain nearness to Him. Our physical journey to Makkah must be a manifestation of this inner state of devotion. Then, and only then, will we have realised the pure monotheism of Abraham(a) - the monotheism which pervades the entire universe and lies at the very core of human existence. •

Feature

Middle East:

Playground of Imperial Strategies

As the Middle East teeters on the brink of another foreign military intervention, Ali Jawad examines the regional power-balance and suggests making use of the impending Hajj pilgrimage to improve Muslim political reality

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43

O

ver the past two years the Middle East has been a permanent media highlight.

The peoples of the region have oscillated between sentiments of hope and outright despondency. With threats of US-led military strikes on the Syrian Arab Republic - justified on the pretext of alleged claims of chemical weapons use by the Assad government - these sentiments and the attitudinal disparities that underlie them are arguably approaching a relative climax.

In such trying circumstances where religious individuals are intuitively pressed to adopt a moral stance, it is useful perhaps to extract ourselves from the day-to-day particulars, and instead attempt to situate these changing political events within a broader global logic.

Today the Middle East is embroiled in a state of strategic turmoil - a chaos which, despite its seeming randomness, has an underlying logic and direction to it. Three of the region’s traditional powerhouses have been impaired from playing any meaningful role in the region’s politics as a result of endless violence and strife. One is naturally led to question whether this is a mere coincidence. And more importantly, who stands to benefit from this reality?

When developments in Iraq, Syria and Egypt are viewed separately, one is able to cite both common and unique sets of challenges that affect each respective nation. Whilst such an approach is no doubt necessary to contextualise the development of domestic events, it is equally necessary to observe the wider repercussions that take shape as a result of this fundamental re-aligning of the regional power balance.

In the wake of the power vacuum that has resulted from this new powerbalance, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been caught up in a mad brawl for primacy in the region. Both nations are absolutist monarchies and unsurprisingly enjoy extremely close ties with the United States.

As the patron sponsor of Wahhabism, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has relied on extremist Islamist groups as its extended hand in the region. The

44

hallmark of such groups is the use of indiscriminate violence to foment a state of chaos, instability and insecurity throughout the region. As a result, the scope and reach of central governments is domestically weakened, and their regional influence diminished.

These extremist groups have shown deadly subservience to this outlook in the last decade in Iraq with destructive consequences and untold human costs. The sprouting of similar outfits in North Africa, Syria, Lebanon and the wider Muslim world in the wake of the Arab Spring should be viewed in effect as a statement of power-assertion by the Saudi kingdom. The State of Qatar on the other hand rested its hopes on bankrolling the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and teaming up with Erdogan’s Turkey to topple the Assad government and replace this with its own propped up Syrian National Council. The untimely coup against Morsi’s government and Saudi Arabia’s prompt financial largesse gifted to the military junta is merely an unfolding of this intense rivalry between the two monarchies.

Similarly, the deadly violence between the FSA and extremist groups such as the Al-Nusra Front in Syria follow the same pattern. In an open escalation of this power struggle, journalists from the Wall Street Journal recently reported that the director of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency Prince Bandar bin Sultan described Qatar as “nothing but 300 people … and a TV channel”.

Yet this power-rivalry seems trivial when contextualised against their absolute dependency on the United States, and their total deference to imperial commands. Emerging from the shadows of this side-show are clear signs of a stratified system of hegemony and control over the region. The real beneficiaries of the instability and constant turmoil in the Middle East become apparent as one sees the unboxing of this imperial system of hegemony.

Indeed, the perfidious pattern sketched by the triumvirate, which joins the United States, the Zionist State and its allied Arab monarchical dictators, is an omen for extended turmoil in the region and a re-assertion of control by

the region’s traditional counter-forces.

THE COUNTER-FORCES

For close to a century, Middle Eastern politics has been plagued by three historic counter-forces. These powers have consistently sought to influence and define the contours of the region’s socio-politics. Despite their sometimes conflicting priorities, they have nonetheless displayed an unquestionable uniformity on issues where there is convergence of key interests.

Firstly, brazen western interference motivated by an apparently insatiable desire for power and control is as evident as ever. The United States continues to ally itself with the region’s most despotic tyrants in order to secure its selfish energy and geopolitical imperatives. It consequently views the resistance-bloc (principally comprised of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah) and the ‘culture of resistance’ as a strategic ideological enemy that must be obliterated in order to ensure the security of its own so-called ‘vital interests’.

Secondly, the belligerence and arrogance of the Zionist state continues to defy reason, and adds new chapters to its characteristic criminality. The red herring of peace talks launched every now and again serves to obscure the simple facts on the ground - a reality in which the Zionist state systematically widens its handle on ultimate control, and commits Palestinians to everintensifying stages of desperation. The accelerating annexation of Al-Quds and settlement building, as well as its systemic project of ethnic-cleansing in the holy city and historic Palestine (evinced for example in the Prawer Plan that forcibly evicts the remaining Arab Bedouins from the Naqab Desert) all indicate the immediate goals that the Zionist state is racing towards. At the regional level, Israel’s trigger-happy leaders have variously declared war on the resistance-bloc, and expressed willingness to join ranks with the region’s other historic counter-force.

The third of these counter-forces are the absolutist monarchies of the Arab world - dictatorial tyrants who continue to mercilessly silence all genuine

aspirations of independence, freedom and dignity that rise from the hearts and minds of Muslims throughout the region. With unmistakable imperial backing, these sheikhdoms continue to deflect world attention from their atrocious crimes and instead parade themselves as voices of ‘moderation’.

In particular, the role of the Saudi kingdom in spreading discord, division and chaos should be of special importance to the Ummah. The stark rise in the incidence of extremist, often takfiri groups, raises serious challenges for the long-term prospects of the Muslim world. Jointly, these three historic counter-forces have unanimously converged on the need to realise two fundamental and strategic objectives for the region: the need to weaken, or even Balkanise, powerful regional states that either exhibit or have the potential to practise real sovereignty and independent policies - this is to be largely achieved through fostering a climate of strategic turmoil by inflaming divisions e.g. religious sectarianism; and the need to obliterate the resistance-bloc, which represents the spearhead of this assertion of dignity and sovereignty; and to pre-emptively nullify any potential ‘demonstration-effect’ that the culture of resistance may have on the peoples of regional nations by tarnishing the image of and ultimately attacking resistance movements and nations.

A SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS…

The track record of western military interventions in the region is eminently clear about the repercussions of such adventures and whom they ultimately serve.

For the unconvinced, the painful legacies of Afghanistan and Iraq in the last decade provide an adequate reminder.

More generally, the situation across much of the Middle East is tragic with Muslim nations lagging far behind on every development index. As a result, on the world stage they have been reduced to chessboard pieces that are moved by greater powers.

For Muslims who still aspire to the everlasting Quranic counsel, which establishes the Ummah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad(s) as a witness

over other nations, we must dig deeper in the search for the real causes of our contemporary woes. Today, the so-called political leaders of Muslim nations are nothing but avaricious, spineless and utterly ignorant beings. Their unprincipled nature allows them to enslave entire nations in order to advance their narrow personal interests. Such leaders could not be further from both the letter and spirit of the Islamic message.

Indeed, it seems that our fate shall remain imperilled unless we identify the sources of true Islamic leadership.

As Muslims from around the globe converge towards the Holy Ka’ba to fulfil their obligations of Hajj, it is crucial that we conscientiously imagine and work towards a brighter future in spite of the weight of challenges. This grand Divine stage provides eternal lessons for those who seek righteousness in the various domains of life.

We must find in our Abrahamic Hajj both spiritual strength and resolve to better our surrounding reality. Just as the pilgrims sever their worldly attachments and put on the simple ihram, we must similarly expunge egoism, hatred and blind worldliness from our hearts.

On the grand plains of Arafah, one and all stand alone before the Almighty, but united in purpose and vision. It is inconceivable that the destiny of Muslim nations will change unless and until we realise that we all share a collective destiny. We must not allow ourselves to be fooled and turned into playthings in the hands of imperial powers or their regional hirelings. The facade of sectarianism is simply a tool to entrench divisions, foment turmoil and prolong the subservience of the Ummah.

If we extract no other lesson from the Divine pilgrimage this year except the need to dispel ignorant hatreds from our hearts, and to fill them instead with sentiments of brotherhood and shared concern, then one feels we will have made important leaps toward resolving our gravest problems. • Ali Jawad is a human rights activist and political analyst with a keen interest in international diplomacy

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talist economic system as the ultimate cause of women’s oppression, a black feminist would consider racial inequalities as the main culprit - causing a double oppression. In the same way, all other Western feminists (Radical, Liberal, Existential, etc.) attribute their particular situation to different essential causes. Indeed, it is this fragmentation of thought and approach to feminist issues that characterises, at least in part, Western feminism in general.

the feminist quandary Fragmented Western feminist approaches have produced few solutions to the persisting problem of gender inequality, says M Haghir

W

estern feminism, as an intellectual movement, aims at freeing women from the bonds of oppression. It also aims at bringing about an equitable existence for women in relation to men.

history of women’s suffrage, it is evident that today we have a world where Western-inspired feminism (and thereby the portrayal of women in a heavily intellectualised context) has at best brought about only the partial and superficial emancipation of women. For example, despite a sharp radicalisation of Western feminism in the 1960s and There is little coherence in the Western all the feminist movements before presentation of women’s issues, even by the and since, we still have a world in feminists themselves. Western feminism has which many women feel they are imprisoned by reason of their sex.

There are not many enlightened people who would deny the equality of women. It ought to be taken for granted that women, as one half of humanity, should enjoy the same rights and opportunities as men.

However, history has shown that women have suffered a lack of equality.

It appears that (for reasons that seem to have nothing to do with women as human beings) somewhere along the line of human development humanity

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lost sight of women as one irreducible pillar of human existence. Before this shift in perception, women were appreciated for all of their abilities. History has also shown the leadership qualities of women, for example, in figures such as the Prophet Muhammad’s(s) wife

fallen short of resolving these issues.

Khadija(a), Boadicea of ancient times, etc. These women were the trendsetters of their times and they were not alone.

Even without discussing the modern

Western feminists have addressed such concerns in a number of ways.

Rosemary Tong’s ‘Feminist Thought’ is an excellent introduction to the differences in feminist views that run across Western feminist thinking. For example, whilst a Marxist feminist sees the capi-

Every single strand of feminism is focused on only one approach to feminist issues and therefore loses sight of what all the others are saying. In this way, Western society has implemented a fragmentary feminist view of the world.

It is as if Western thinking about women has succeeded in dividing a more encompassing vision. To this extent, there is little coherence in the Western presentation of women’s issues, even by these feminists themselves.

As a result Western feminism has fallen short of resolving these issues, despite many courageous attempts to unify Western feminist thinking. At the same time, a true concern with feminist issues does not really have to subscribe to any particular ‘ism’ in order to voice itself.

The fixation with underlying sexual issues has produced within the western feminist’s camp other reductionist and crude attempts that have tried to explain the basis of women’s wellbeing as a purely physiological process.

Naomi Wolf’s 2012 book emphasised the connection between women’s reproductive organs and their brains.

This connection is seen by her as a process of signalling in both directions and involves corresponding hormonal activity. For Wolf, the wellbeing of women is dependent on the smooth operation of this physiological process.

However, like men, women are more than the sum of their specific physiology, even if we take into account their natural calling to bear children.

Western intellectual feminist perspectives have been unable to alleviate many of feminism’s essential complaints. But

women can also be seen from a nonWestern point of view. Contrary to the Western imagery of Muslim women, Islam places great importance on the status of women for the wellbeing of both themselves and society as a whole.

Let us not forget that it was the advent of Islam which prohibited the hitherto Arab practice of female infanticide burying alive female babies as soon as they were born.

In regards to women as mothers, the famous tradition of the Prophet Muhammad(s) - ‘heaven is under the feet of mothers’ - is a good example of the way in which Middle Eastern women are, in part, viewed by themselves and the society in which they live. That is to say, motherhood is treated as one irreducible necessity for the unity and wellbeing of Middle Eastern societies in general. As such, both men and women

Western feminism has not been able to prevent the portrayal of women as sexual objects. take pride in motherhood and place mothers in a special position. This is not to equate women only with motherhood. Rather, it is a cultural significance that society as a whole attributes to women over and above other aspects of their existence. Put this idea next to the (Radical) feminist position that reproductive processes constrain women’s freedom and the contrast is self-evident.

Similarly, and for the same reasons, abortion (something that has become relatively acceptable in most Western cultures) is viewed in a negative light.

More than viewing these contrasts from a critical perspective, the point is that Western feminist views such as these have influenced the outlook of a sizeable number of the world’s female population.

As we have already said, Middle Eastern women, like all other women in the world, are about more than just motherhood. One look at the thousands of pictures on the internet shows women

making their voices heard everywhere in the currently troubled world, especially in the Middle East (Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Tunisia, etc). Thus, Middle Eastern women are highly political too, often much more so than their modern Western sisters.

After all is said and done, to date, Western feminism has not been able to prevent the portrayal of women as sexual objects. If anything, the reverse has been the case; that is to say, Western culture makes a positive effort to portray women as sexual objects. If Western economy and culture is dependent (at least in part) on advertising (see islam today, August 2013), and sexuality forms the biggest element in all Western advertising, then it follows that the women of the wider world ought to take Western feminism, with a pinch of salt. Indeed, men and women should unite in learning from past mistakes and redefine a whole new and more encompassing feminist philosophy. In that way, both women and men will prosper by giving vent to so much female creativity and wisdom that is currently either locked up or, through no fault of its own, has gone astray.

Western feminist approaches, by virtue of the persistence of women’s issues in the ways described above, are inadequate for the achievement of their shared objective, i.e., to emancipate women by resolving those issues.

By taking a Western oriented view of women’s issues, the rest of the world’s female population will not only meet the same failure but will also be diverted from some of the emancipatory values that their own non-Western societies bestow on women.

Western feminism as a whole, whilst achieving only token, insubstantial, and even adverse results - the portrayal of women as sexual objects is a prime example - thus functions to counter the cause of universal suffrage. •

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of wastefulness

The gr ave sin

Increased production and consumption in the western industrialised world has led to a culture of waste whose model is being replicated across emerging economies. Hamid Waqar explains Islam’s position on the concept of israaf (wastefulness)

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onder the following facts in order to understand how much is wasted in today’s industrialised western societies. The statistics are taken from an article written last year by the Washington Post’s Brad Plumer, who specialises in environmental issues: “Each year 40% of all food in the United States goes uneaten. It is estimated that “Americans are squandering the equivalent of $165 billion each year by rubbishing so much food.” The article breaks down where and how this food is wasted.

For instance, 7% of the produce grown in the US is left in the farm fields to rot. Then the farmers cut their yield by throwing out produce that is not up to cosmetic standards. More food is destroyed in the manufacturing process, then during retail it is estimated that $15 billion worth of fruit and vegetables are tossed out each year, not to mention what happens in restaurants and homes. Interestingly, Americans waste 50% more food than they did in the 1970s.

These figures highlight the correlation between wastefulness and the rise of consumerism. The average American uses 53 times more goods and services than the average Chinese citizen. North America and Europe account for 60% of private consumption while only constituting 12% of the global population. The average American citizen eats 222 pounds of meat each year. United States homes have more television sets than people. Each woman in the United Kingdom owns an average of 21 handbags.

Islam is fundamentally opposed to wastefulness. When individuals fall into the trap of being wasteful and committing excess society itself suffers.

Consumer societies are particularly prone to wasteful behaviour, which can slowly eat away at the fabric of society.

Islam aims to protect society and the individual from the negative effects of wastefulness and hyper-consumerism, both of which hurt the environment and his own soul. In the Holy Qur’an God shows his strong dislike of excess: “O Children of Adam! Put on your adornment on every occasion of prayer, and eat and drink, but do not waste; indeed He does not like the wasteful.”

(7:31).

It is interesting to note that this is one of the verses where God addresses all of humanity, not only the believers.

The refrain is repeated in another verse: “It is He who produces gardens trellised and without trellises, and palm-trees and crops of diverse produce, olives and pomegranates, similar and dissimilar.

Eat of its fruits when it fructifies, and give its due on the day of harvest, and do not be wasteful; indeed He does not like the wasteful.” (6:141) God also warns that the recompense of the wasteful and extravagant in the hereafter will be divine punishment: “The extravagant are the inmates of the fire.” (Qur’an 40:43) God takes it a step further and in a metaphorical expression describes the wasteful and extravagant as the brothers of the devils: “Indeed the wasteful are brothers of satans, and Satan is ungrateful to his Lord” (17:27) As mentioned at the end of the verse the devils (shayateen) are known for their ungratefulness to whatever God has favoured them with.

A true believer is one who seeks moderation in his beliefs and actions. Wastefulness and extravagance are opposed to moderation. Imam Ali bin Abi Talib(a) is reported to have said: “Whenever God intends goodness from his servants, he reveals to him to live moderately and spend his life in the best way and keeps

him away from extravagance.”

The companions of the Prophet(s) and Imams(a) took these verses and traditions to heart. For instance, Uthman, the second caliph, ordered one of his servants to give 200 gold coins to Abu Dharr. When his servant approached Abu Dharr and tried to give him the coins Abu Dharr asked him whether he had given the same amount of coins to all Muslims. When he realised that it was just him, he refused and said that he did not need them. The servant responded: “But, I don’t see anything in your house that would show that you are not in need.” Abu Dharr retorted by pointing at a bowl and saying: “There are two pieces of barley bread in it and hence I am needless.”

Imam Ja’far bin Muhammad al-Sadiq(a) raises some interesting questions and then shows how moderation should be practised. He is reported to have said: “Do you think if God provided someone with wealth it is because he is His beloved? And if He has given less to someone it is because he is low? No! It is not so. Whatever wealth is there, it all belongs to God. God gives it to whomever He wishes as a trust and He has permitted the trustee to eat, drink, wear clothes, marry, and ride from it, (but) in moderation. If he has excess he must distribute it among the poor and fulfil their needs. Then whoever follows the Divine commands, whatever he has eaten, drunk, worn, married and rode in moderation; all this is lawful for him and if he does not act upon it, everything is prohibited.”

Therefore, the Islamic position on wastefulness and extravagance is clear.

Islam advises us to be moderate in our spending and usage of consumer goods. An individual who is wasteful and extravagant and has attached himself to the world will eventually be led away from the remembrance of God. This will put him on the slippery slope of committing more sins and the path of divine retribution in the hereafter. • Hamid Waqar is an American revert scholar, graduated from Islamic seminaries.

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Interfaith in the Bible. The devil is certainly a fallen angel but it would be a stupid and fatal error to believe that his powers and schemes match in any way those of the Creator. Hence there can be no negative figure corresponding to the good guardian angel watching over a person’s life.

They come, God’s messengers of love, to watch around us here, to soothe our sorrows and calm our fears. Frank Gelli reflects on the Christian Feast of the Guardian Angels

Feast of the Guardian Angels “Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared.”

Exodus 23:20

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uring one of his conversations on religion the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein was once asked whether the idea of a guardian angel assigned to every human being was naive and childish. ‘Not at all’ he replied, ‘it has charm and it may be part of a genuine, distinct form of human life.’

God’s words to Moses in the Book of Exodus are amongst many passages in the Bible that are invoked in support of guardian angels. It should come as no surprise, as belief in angels in general is part of the Christian faith.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church indeed states that human beings, from infancy to death, are under the angels’ watchful care and protection. To this effect, it quotes the authority of St Basil of Caesarea, the great Cappadocian theologian: ‘Besides each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.’

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Angelic help is a powerful and mysterious affair because it pertains to the divine realm. Nothing exists that does not owe his existence to the Creator, mind you. Angels are spiritual, noncorporeal beings but still they are created creatures. They do impact on the physical world whenever it is God’s will. Suitably, the etymology of the Greek word ‘angelos’ reminds us that an angel is a messenger to men.

Thus angels have been created to be God’s servants. It is fitting that guardian angels have as their special service to care after human beings. Indeed, Holy Scripture says that angels even protected Jesus in his infancy, served him in the desert and strengthened him through terrible sufferings in the garden of Gethsemane. They will announce Christ’s second coming and be there to serve him again.

One of the most entrancing narratives in the Bible about a guardian angel is

in the Book of Tobit. The young man Tobias journeys to Razes in Persia in search of practical matters: money and a wife. In disguise, the angel Raphael accompanies him as a guide. As they camp by the River Tigris, Raphael saves the boy from being bitten by a monstrous fish. He then instructs him how to cut up the fish so as to use its entrails as healing ingredients and potions. Later Raphael helps in arranging his marriage with a beautiful and pious girl, Sara. Not so easy you might think, because the maiden is also coveted by Asmodeus, a jealous demon that harms anyone who approaches her.

However, the angel reassures Tobias: ‘Do not be afraid, for she was destined for you from all eternity.’ And so the young man obeys Raphael. By burning some of the fish’s entrails he creates smoke that puts the demon to flight. Lo and behold, Sara is now free to marry him! It is indeed a union willed by God.

Raphael eventually reveals his true identity as a heavenly emissary. He also makes clear that he is not a being acting independently but as directed by the Most High. All’s well that ends well.

Undeniably, the story of Tobias and the angel (often seductively portrayed in Christian art, such in Verrocchio’s delightful, colourful picture in London’s National Gallery) includes elements of magic and crude materialism, reflecting somewhat the culture and mentality of the writer. In truth, the function of a guardian angel is a bit more than that of a marriage counsellor and business adviser! Only in the perfect and exemplary message of the New Testament will the true nature and purpose of angelic realities be clarified.

The Feast of the Guardian Angels falls on October 2nd. It was initially only celebrated locally, in various parts of the world, but throughout history requests for a wider place in the Church’s Missal kept growing, until Pope Clement X made it into a universal feast in 1670.

That is significant because it reflects a popular devotion by the faithful, as well as a growing desire for the feast to be enjoyed by all everywhere.

Just as the current, deplorable cult of so-called ‘celebrities’ reflects popular aspirations, in however twisted a fashion, so did the veneration of guardian angels

in better times. It is a fallacy to believe that it is the Church that imposes its dogmas and sacred liturgies on reluctant parishioners. Very often it is the other way round. With the institution of the Feast, the Church acknowledged and enshrined the people’s genuine desires and demands. Hence the feast expressed a yearning of many believers for nearness to transcendent realities.

Naturally, a question arises: if a guardian angel’s task is to care and protect, why do people’s lives sometime go badly, even awfully wrong? Why do people sin?

Why do bad things, accidents, injuries, even disasters befall a good, devout person? Where is his heavenly carer?

Does it mean the guardian angel is incompetent or useless? That he is not doing his job, in other words?

Some writers have sought to solve this difficulty by appealing to the idea of a dark, diabolical angel, positioned alongside the benevolent one. I remember a popular religious print to that effect.

Just as there is an angel of light seeking to assist you, there would be also a tenebrous angel – perhaps like the fiend Asmodeus of Tobias’ story - trying to trip you up. This image should be resisted because it would introduce into spirituality an unnecessary and dangerous dualism. Whatever the wiles of Satan, there is no theological symmetry between light and darkness

The solution of the problem lies in the matter of man’s free will, the stupendous gift the Creator has bestowed on his human handiwork. A guardian angel cannot override or sway man’s will. He can impact on human sensory apparatus, so affecting the imagination and perhaps the intellect but he cannot make or force a person to choose moral right or wrong. He is indeed chiefly a good counsellor and guide but no more.

(Ultimately, a guide can only advise you, take you thus far but he cannot compel you go his way.) To maintain the opposite would rob human beings of freedom, turn them into mere puppets in the hands of an omnipotent puppeteer, God, pulling heavenly strings. Like in paganism, people would then merely be God’s playthings. That is not true, praise be to God! When I was a parish priest it fell to me to conduct funeral services in which I called upon the assistance of the angels for the departed: ‘May the angels lead you into Paradise...’ Some of the most beautiful words that can be uttered in wishing someone well. They will come, God’s messengers of love ‘from homes of never-fading light, from blissful mansions ever bright’, as a hymn sings.

Those who watched around us soothed our sorrows and calmed our fears. To me, it is not fanciful to hope that our guardian angels will be amongst those shining and blessed throngs leading us back to the Holy God from whom we come and to whom we shall return. •

Revd Frank Julian Gelli is an Anglican priest, cultural critic and a religious controversialist, working on religious dialogue. His last book “Julius Evola: the Sufi of Rome’ is available on Amazon Kindle.

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Health Medical Editor Laleh Lohrasbi

Hirudotherapy After a century, leech-therapy is back in the service of medicine. Laleh Lohrasbi examines the current use of this ancient animal

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limy, squirmy and parasitic, the bloodsucking leech is probably the last thing you would think of as medicinal cure. But since 1985, when a Harvard surgeon, Joseph Upton, employed them to successfully help reattach the ear of a patient that had been bitten off by a dog, the long neglected creature has made a remarkable comeback in the world of medicine.

The use of leeches in medicine is perhaps as old as the Pyramids. Hieroglyphic paintings on the walls of ancient Egyptians from 3,500 years ago depict leeches. The first description of leech therapy, classified as bloodletting, was found in the Sanskrit surgical textbook Sushruta Samhita (800 BC). Sushruta, also considered the father of plastic surgery, listed about six types of leeches (poisonous and non-poisonous). Later on, Galen (200 AC) prescribed use of leeches for bloodletting in order to balance four hormones and used the word Hirudo for leeches for the first time. Leeches were also discussed by the famous Muslim polymath IbnSina in his The Canon of Medicine in the 11th century and by Abd-el-Latif al-Baghdadi in the 12th century.

More than 600 species of leeches are known to us, of which 15 are medicinal species (Hirudo Medicinalis). Hirudotherapy was initially used for a variety of conditions including headache, gangrene, and imbalance in hormones.

Today it is used for treating redness, swelling, grafting skin, restoring blood vessels and circulation. In the US, Hirudotherapy was approved as a medical therapy in 2004. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established the

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commercial use of medicinal leeches for medicinal purposes stating that the leech met the definition of a ‘medical device’.

Two decades earlier, Joseph Upton had turned to them to replant the ear of his five year-old patient. Ears, which have very small blood vessels, had never been successfully replanted. Upton had no trouble with the boy’s arteries, but as he struggled to reconnect the veins, clots began to form. Often during reattachment surgery, it is relatively simple to reconnect the larger arterial blood vessels but almost impossible to reconnect the thinner, more delicate venous vessels. This leads to pooling of blood and swelling, which may cut off the flow of fresh arterial blood to the reconnected limb completely.

Whilst in the army, Upton had used maggots to disinfect wounds so the idea of using leeches wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for him. The leeches drained the local blood, decompressing the pressure within the reattached ear, ensuring blood flow to the reattached tissue until the venous blood vessels could reconnect and survive.

Nobody knows how many lives, limbs and appendages they have saved since then but one thing is certain - today the disregard to which the leech had slumped following the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century has clearly been reversed.

When the leech is brought into contact with a patient, it attaches itself with its suckers, injects a natural anesthetic, and the three jaws of its head sucker slice into the patient’s skin with a sawing

benefits of leeches and in1984 founded the world’s first large-scale leech farm, Biopharm, in Wales. Today leech farms produce millions of leeches every year.

motion. They secrete their saliva into the bitten area which consists of more than 100 different compounds. The effects of these compounds on a live organism includes normalisation and improvement of capillary circulation, anti-inflammatory, immune-stimulating, anaesthetic, anticoagulant and antibacterial effects.

mation and joint dysfunction in inflammatory diseases. The leech’s bioactive substances help to relieve oedema and stiffness by reducing blood congestion, improving blood circulation, facilitating the reach of nutrients and biological substances to the affected site.

Hirudin, the anticoagulant compound of the leech saliva, prevents blood from clotting. This allows the blood to continue to flow through damaged tissue until the veins re-grow and regain circulation. This procedure makes leeches an incredibly valuable tool in reattaching minute veins such as those found on ears, fingers, toes, scalp, skin and breast. The anti-clotting agents also dissolve clots found in vessels, eliminating the risk of them travelling to other parts of the body blocking an artery or a vein.

In the past leeches were collected from freshwaters and the wild leading to all sorts of infections being transmitted to the human body. Today leeches are mass produced in leech farms. Modern Hirudotherapy differs from its ancient predecessor in that leeches are grown at special bio-factories where they are kept under strict quarantine. In modern Hirudotherapy, leeches are used only once completely eliminating the risk of passing on infections. Leeches have had no prior contact with humans; they are usually fed on poultry blood collected from slaughterhouses that produce meat for human consumption.

Leech therapy is also practised effectively in knee osteoarthritis. This therapy reduces pain, stiffness, inflam-

The best known advocate of medical leeches, Roy Sawyer, an American researcher, recognised the potential

The number of leeches to be applied is determined on the basis of the desired therapeutic effect, the patient’s condition and age, medical history and possible contraindications. Leeches are kept fasting for at least three months.

This period is essential for the animal to feel the need for another meal as leeches’ digestion system is very slow.

The hungrier they are, the better they attach themselves to the patient’s body.

Some common conditions that may prevent the leech from biting onto an area include having a common cold or aged skin. Being a smoker may also increase the risk of failure.

A leech can consume 5-15 ml of blood and falls off spontaneously after sucking for around 20 to 45 minutes.

In normal circumstances leech therapists use up to 10 leeches so the patient can lose up to 150 ml of blood during a single treatment.

Despite its numerous benefits, Hirudotherapy is not for everyone, especially those with blood disorders such as haemophilia, leukaemia, low blood pressure, anaemia, HIV and AIDS. Since leech therapy is associated with bloodletting it would put patients with blood disorders at serious risk of bacterial sepsis, thus worsening their condition.

Many people will feel disgusted and scared by the idea of being touched and bitten by a worm that has thirty two

brains and three jaws with one hundred teeth on each. This has led many scientists to look for an alternative solution.

“In the case of the leech in medicine, we think we can improve on nature,” says Nadine Connor of the University of Wisconsin. In 2001 Connor helped to develop a mechanical leech. The mechanical leech can perform some of the duties of the real leech. This device, which looks like a small bottle attached to a suction cup, delivers an anti-clotting drug to the damaged tissue and gently sucks out as much blood as is needed. Unlike a real leech, the mechanical version can suck blood until it is turned off. Real leeches drop off by themselves when they become engorged with blood.

The ability of humans to mimic nature has once again proved instrumental, as up to 20% of patients treated with real leeches develop infections caused

by Aeromonas Hydrophila, bacteria that live in the leech’s gut. While these infections can easily be treated with antibiotics, the mechanical leech is always sterile and fully controlled. They can be inserted deep into the tissue where clotted blood is collected while the real leech can only attach to the surface of the skin.

However, those who use bloodletting as a form of treatment still believe in the natural wrigglers. Leeches, they say, are a nearly perfect and self-reproducing surgical tool, adding that the leech’s bite is not nearly as bad as its reputation. •

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Healthy Liver

Cirrhosis

Fatty Liver Disease

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he liver, located on the upper right part of the tummy, is a vital organ with many functions including turning and storing glucose as a fuel for the body, making essential proteins for blood clothing, helping to remove poisons from the body, and making bile which is responsible for digesting fat.

It is normal for the liver to contain some fat due to its biochemical functions.

However when a large deposit of fat is retained in the liver cells it can lead to ‘fatty liver disease’. Fat accumulated in the liver begins to swell and turn from a healthy reddish-brown to a shiny yellowy colour.

In the developed world the most common cause of this abnormal retention is excessive alcohol. Liver disease due to excessive drinking is now the fifth biggest killer in the UK - the number of deaths has risen by 20 per cent in the past decade. While alcohol consumption of 9.4 litres per adult per year in the United States is considered average, the rate of 13.4 litres per adult per year in the UK is high. Adult per

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Modern lifestyles, with their excessive intake of fast processed food, have created many diseases. Laleh Lohrasbi examines ‘fatty liver disease’ - one of modern society’s biggest killers

capita consumption is highest in highincome countries and nearly as high in the populous upper-middle-income countries.

In the developing countries the disease has multiple causes. Some 70 % of cases worldwide are of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Most of them are in developed countries where sedentary lifestyles and high calorie sugar and fatty diets are the norm, but developing and Muslim countries are also affected.

Although Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease was once mostly associated with age today the main culprit is obesity. In the US there are about six million obese children – mostly Asian and Hispanic – who are extremely susceptible to developing cirrhosis in early adulthood. Recent evidence indicates that NAFLD also increases the risk of heart disease in overweight or

obese children.

The frequency of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among children is 3-10% worldwide, rising to an alarming 40-70% among obese children. If the child’s basic liver disease advances to inflammatory disease and then to cirrhosis, the child may experience symptoms such as yellowing of the skin (jaundice), fatigue, weakness, spider-like blood vessels, swelling of the legs (oedema) or abdomen (ascites), and mental confusion.

In basic fatty liver disease, only a small amount of fat is stored in the liver cells.

For most people this amount does not cause any harm but in others it can progress to more severe forms and this is what makes it so important to control the condition.

Another stage of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Steatohepatitis (NASH), is when excess fat in the liver cells is

associated with inflammation which can damage the liver cells. NASH can lead to scarring (fibrosis) and ultimately to cirrhosis. When the number of fibrosis areas increase in the liver tissue, the structure and function of the liver are badly disrupted leading to liver failure and other complications like gastrointestinal bleeding and liver cancer. Most patients suffer from basic fatty liver disease and only a minority of people progress to cirrhosis.

When cirrhosis occurs, the flow of blood from the intestines through the scarred liver is blocked. The blockage of the flow of blood through the liver causes the blood to bypass the liver. The pressure within the bypassing blood vessels increases and the vessels enlarge, rupturing and bleeding profusely. The flow of blood from the intestine that bypasses the liver prevents the liver from removing toxic chemicals produced in the intestine. These toxins are shunted to the brain where they interfere with all of the brain’s functions, ultimately leading to coma.

NAFLD and NASH are usually silent and do not have any symptoms, especially in the early stages, but over time symptoms such as fatigue, pain in the upper right of the abdomen due to enlarged liver, weight loss or loss of appetite, weakness, nausea, confusion, and patchy, dark skin discoloration on the neck or abdomen may present.

There is no standard treatment for fatty liver disease but it can easily be treated by eliminating the underlying cause in the early stages. Diseases like diabetes should be properly treated. If the patient is obese then losing weight gradually is a good choice (not more than one or two pounds a week). Losing 9% of bodyweight over a couple of months can successfully reverse NASH symptoms.

Increasing physical activity and eating a healthy diet while limiting calories is helpful. Foods containing refined, rapidly digested carbohydrates including bread, grits, potatoes, corn and concentrated sugar found in sport drinks and juice should be avoided.

Adding Omega 3 and more fish to daily food is a good way of increasing essential fatty acids and lowering the amount of blood lipids.

Some antioxidants and diabetes medications are suggested as possible medications for NAFLD including; Vitamin E, Selenium, Betaine, Metformin, Roziglitazone and Pioglitazone. Probiotics are the newest suggestions for treating fatty liver disease containing healthy live bacteria or yeasts to counteract unbalanced diets. If cirrhosis becomes severe, a liver transplant may be needed.

Perhaps the most important ‘take home message’ of being diagnosed with NAFLD is not to focus too much on the liver but to concentrate on reducing any risk factors associated with developing cardiovascular problems - the most common cause of illness and death in people with NAFLD. These are very simple and involve basic changes in lifestyle, diet, weight loss, giving up smoking and taking up exercise. •

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Science

The Science of Replication After the discovery of DNA, cloning has become a more tangible reality.

Ghazaleh Kamrani explains the basics of gene cloning and its current applications in medical science

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NA is a double spiral structure that contains our heredity information. Scientists use the term ˝double helix˝ to describe DNA’s winding, two-stranded structure. The location of DNA is in the core (nucleus) of each body cell except the red blood cells which have no nucleus.

through the detailed ‘Human Genome Project’ (HGP). Thanks to this discovery the list of genetic codes of the human body is now easily accessible to all concerned.

Sometimes it is necessary to make copies of DNA. One of the most common reasons is to study the DNA

Each molecule of DNA transforms into what is called a chromosome and is coiled and supercoiled DNA. Every human cell has 46 chromosomes of which 23 chromosomes are contributed by the egg and 23 by the spermatozoa.

Some parts of the DNA of each chromosome which are called ‘genes’ code anything from eye colour to hormones.

These are heredity units and are similar in all humans such as two eyes, two ears and one mouth. Each gene is a chemical code known as ‘genetic code’. These codes are specific to each individual. So while we all have similar genes which make up our body parts, our genetic codes are different and specific to each individual.

The above DNA structure is what makes us different but similar individuals. These codes are essential in the make-up of proteins which are the basis of almost anything in the body. But what the rest of the DNA structure does is still a puzzle.

The collective human genes are called the ‘human genome’. Scientists have documented all the human genome

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further or to preserve existing DNA which, if not copied, may be damaged or lost forever. This action of copying DNA is called ‘Molecular Cloning’.

Cloning is the replication of any biological matter. Today cloning is commonly

associated with the story of Dolly the sheep. However there is more to cloning than just creating similar creatures.

however, such as the pancreas and the heart, stem cells only divide under special conditions.

The term cloning has entered common usage to indicate counterfeiting (like in the case of credit cards or mobile SIM cards). This term indicates the production of identical copies of something.

The term clone is a Greek word meaning ‘twig’, referring to the reproduction of plants from cuttings, a type of cloning practised for thousands of years.

Scientists can obtain stem cells from a variety of sources, but the preferred option is early embryos since young

Cloning can happen naturally in the form of twinning.

Once an egg is fertilised, it soon starts to divide into more cells.

Sometimes, a cell divides into two cells, but these two cells become separated and each one starts to divide into two, then four, then eight cells and so on. It is during this process of cell multiplication that scientists can obtain the all important stem cells.

cells have shown to respond better to the cloning process.

Stem cells differ from ordinary cells in two important ways. First, they are unspecialised cells capable of renewing themselves through cell division, sometimes after long periods of inactivity.

Second, they can be induced under certain conditions to become tissue or organ-specific cells with special functions. In some organs, such as the gut and bone marrow, stem cells regularly divide to repair and replace worn out or damaged tissues. In other organs,

There are three principal forms of cloning: copying DNA molecules (Molecular Cloning), copying cellules (Cellular Cloning) and copying organisms (some organisms reproduce normally in an asexual way such as bacteria, plants, some invertebrate animals that generate identical copies of themselves).

Molecular cloning and cellular cloning do not involve germ cells (egg or sperm) so the cloned cells are not capable of developing into embryos.

These two processes have not prompted any ethical opposition; however the cloning of animal organisms, in particular of mammals such as Dolly has attracted controversy because of its possible application to humans.

To date research in the production of genetic copies of organisms is aimed at two areas known as reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning.

Reproductive cloning

The aim of reproductive cloning is to create identical individuals. This can be done by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT). In this method, the nucleus of a somatic cell in an egg which is out of nucleus is multiplied in the laboratory.

The multiplied cells are then put in the uterus of a receiver. In the case of Dolly, after a specific period, a lamb was

born which was genetically the same as the giver of the somatic cell. Reproductive cloning in the case of humans is explicitly forbidden in many countries that have legislated in this field.

Therapeutic cloning

In this method the stem cells, which contains all our genes and can develop into any body organ, are used to focus on repairing the unhealthy organs.

Stem cells - made from the patient’s own DNA and compatible with the patient’s body - are multiplied in a lab. The cloned cells are then infused into the damaged tissue where they continue to multiply, only to repair the damaged tissue. Perhaps in the future, stem cells can be used for producing fully grown organs.

Therapeutic cloning from embryonic stem cells is considered ethically unacceptable in some countries and allowed with certain controls in other countries such as the UK. The most problematic ethical issue around cloning is centred on the possibility of human cloning. In 1996 Pope John Paul II decreed that human cloning was amoral. Disapproval of human cloning is not unique to the Catholic Church. Muslim scholars agree that while animal cloning is permissible, cloning human beings is prohibited.

Scientists in the Islamic Republic of Iran successfully cloned their first mammal - a sheep called ‘Royana’ - in 2004. Royana was created using the same method as Dolly. Scientists used stem cells obtained from the ear tissue of a male lamb. But Iran has also produced cultured and frozen human embryonic stem cells. Iranian scientists have established human stem cell lines since 2004. Moreover, stem cell research and cloning for therapeutic purposes, which involves cells taken from a foetus, is permissible only using embryos in the “pre-ensoulment” stages of foetus development.

In 2003 the Muslim World League’s Islamic Jurisprudence Council conference held in Makkah declared that ‘it is permissible to acquire, grow and use stem cells for therapy or scientific

research as long as the cells’ sources are permissible’…

It is forbidden to obtain or use stem cells if their source is forbidden. Examples of this include foetuses intentionally aborted without a legitimate medical reason, intentional fertilisation between a donated ovum and sperm, and therapeutic cloning.

In May 2013, the prestigious journal Cell published the results of a study by a group of scientists from the Oregon National Research Centre. This study introduced a new element into the equation. By starting from adult skin stem cells, scientists have been able to create embryonic stem cells with therapeutic potential without the use of embryos. The scientists involved have underlined the point that their research ‘is directed to the creation of stem cells to be used to fight diseases’ and cannot be used by others to move forward towards human reproductive cloning’.

This could resolve an important ethical issue revolving around the use of

embryos providing new hope in regenerative medicine for major diseases such as Parkinson’s, spinal cord injuries or heart disease and all those conditions which may need a new organ, a new fabric, new neurons etc., without the risk of rejection. •

Ghazaleh Kamrani is a graduate in Cellular and Molecular Biology

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The origin

of the Moon: the mystery continues Hannah Smith examines the scientific evidence of how the Earth gained its Moon

T

he sighting of the new moon, to determine the beginning of the Islamic months, reminds us of the central role of the Moon in the timing of Islamic rituals; it is the object by which we regulate our calendar, a universal timepiece chosen

by God to demarcate time for a universal timeless religion. "They ask you about the new moons. Say: These are signs to mark fixed periods of time for mankind and for the pilgrimage."[Quran, 2:189] Elsewhere the Qur’an also says: "It is He who made sun a lamp, and moon a light and measured stages so you know number of years and count (of time)." (10:5), and "Allah is He who raised heavens without pillars that you can see; Then He established Himself on the throne; And He subjected the sun and the moon (to his law); each one runs its course for a term appointed." (13:2) As a constant in the universe the moon is the perfect natural vehicle by which to measure the passage of time and has been used by many peoples including the Chinese, Babylonians, Egyptians and Jews.

But aside from being a timepiece or object of worship, little was known about the Moon itself by scientists until relatively recently. Even today despite being our closest celestial neighbour

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and the recipient of several manned space visits, scientists are divided about how the Earth obtained its Moon, where it came from and how it was made.

The Moon is the Earth’s nearest celestial body and its only natural satellite.

It was formed 4.52 billion years ago. It is believed that the Moon was created during the early building phase of the Solar System known as the ‘early accretionary period’ in which rock fragments from the initial proto-planetary disk continued to clump together under the force of gravity to feed the growth of the young proto-planets.

Compared to many of the other moons orbiting the other planets in the Solar System, the Moon has a number of peculiarities: it has a very large size relative to the planet it orbits, it has an elliptical orbit, and its rocks have an almost identical chemical composition to those of terrestrial rocks. These scientific observations make the explanation of the Moon’s origin a moderate challenge.

The easiest explanation for a planet to gain a moon is by capturing an asteroid or proto-planet in passing. Unlike many of the other planets’ moons, at 50% of the Earth’s radius, our Moon is too large to have been captured by Earth’s gravitational field. In fact the Moon experiences a greater pull from the gravity of the Sun than that of the Earth, although the Moon orbits too close to the Earth for them to be considered a

double-planet system.

The Earth span so fast it blew apart

The earliest scientist to propose a hypothesis for the origin of the Moon was George Darwin, son of the famous biologist Charles Darwin. In 1879, he suggested that the Earth span so fast in the past that it blew apart and some of the debris that detached from the Earth coalesced to form the Moon. Darwin suggested that the Pacific Ocean is a scar of this event, representing an area which was excavated when material was lost; however this idea has since been proven wrong as the oceanic crust of the Pacific is too young.

The Great Impact Hypothesis

The most popular explanation for the origin of the moon is the “Great Impact Hypothesis” (GIH) that emerged in the 1970s. The fundamental idea of the GIH is that the moon was formed when another proto-planetary body approximately the same size of Mars, dubbed “Theia”, collided with the recently agglomerated proto-Earth during the early accretionary period of the Solar System. Debris blown into surrounding space from the impact accreted to form the Moon. Scientists estimate that the collisional body would have needed to be as big as Mars to account for the combined angular momentum of the Earth and Moon. The GIH is a plausible theory because violent high energy

impacts between giant objects would have been common in the early period of the Solar System where unbound rocks and growing embryonic planets catapulted around the Solar System before they eventually coalesced to form one of the contemporary planetary bodies.

The heat generated by the collision would have caused temperatures to reach up to 10,000˚C, liquefying the outer layers of the Earth and Moon to form magma oceans. Melting the Earth’s rocks would have created the necessary conditions to allow heavier elements such as iron to sink and form Earth’s iron core. The heating and melting would have also allowed any gases including water vapour trapped in the crystal structures of the rocks’ minerals to be released.

Analyses of Moon rocks generally yield small proportions of volatiles, but there is substantial evidence including the discovery of water by a group of scientists at the University of Notre Dame in February this year, that could threaten the impact hypothesis.

Impact models predict that the isotopic signature of the rocks on the Moon should be different to that of the Earth and similar to the collisional body Theia.

However results published in 2011 and 2012 show that the isotopic signatures of the most common elements - oxygen, chromium, potassium and silicon - from Moon rocks are almost indistinguish-

able from terrestrial rocks. It is thought that isotopic compositions vary with distance from the Sun as samples of rock from Mars and Vespa, an asteroid that orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, have wildly different oxygen isotopic signatures. Researchers at Caltech estimated the probability of Theia having identical isotopic signatures to Earth to be less than 1%.

A nuclear reactor ejected the Moon

The most outlandish but not impossible idea is the creation of the Moon by a massive natural nuclear reactor buried deep inside the Earth. Scientists are almost certain that natural nuclear reactors or georeactors have existed inside the Earth in the past as relics.

Fossilised traces of georeactors measuring 1.5–10 metres across have been found in western Africa and such internal nuclear fissile reactions provide a plausible heat source for the excess heat given out by the Earth.

Wim van Westrenen, a planetary scientist at VU University in Amsterdam, and proponent of the georeactor hypothesis, claims that the Moon was formed when a super georeactor substantially larger than the small fossil reactors found in western Africa went super-critical. The resulting cataclysmic explosion could have blown the world apart with a force 11,000 times greater than the world’s most powerful atom

bomb, the Tsar, detonated by the Soviet regime in 1951, or equivalent to 40 million billion atomic bombs of the size dropped on Hiroshima.

A number of scientists accept that a nuclear reactor could have formed early in the Earth’s history while the planet was very hot and molten allowing heavy and radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium and plutonium concentrated in dense rocks to sink and accumulate at the Earth’s core-mantle boundary.

The georeactor, like the great impact hypothesis, has been shown to provide a plausible explanation for the formation of the Moon. Scientists however continue to search for better explanations of the Moon’s origin, dissatisfied with current versions of these theories that are not entirely able to corroborate challenging scientific observations such as the chemical similarity of the Earth and the Moon. •

Hannah Smith is a graduate in Geophysics from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, and holds a Masters degree in Geology from the University of Michigan. She currently works as a Physics teacher at a secondary school in London

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Conservation of the Old Walled

City of Sana’a

Republic of Yemen

The historic city boasts a spectacular display of densely packed traditional structures

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“Viewed for the first time the old walled city of Sana’a creates an unforgettable impression, a vision of a childhood dream world of fantasy castles.” Ronald B. Lewcock

S

ana’a has been continuously inhabited for over 2,500 years.

Its religious and cultural heritage is reflected in its 106 mosques, 12 hammams (bath houses) and 6,500 houses built before the 11th

national campaign to conserve the city. After considerable preservation and rehabilitation efforts, the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. While conservation efforts have been successful, little has

century. The city’s architecture has been damaged, demolished and rebuilt through flooding, wars and prosperity.

Yet, it wasn’t until the modernisation in the 1970s that the city’s architectural fabric was truly in danger of disappearing. In the early 1980s, at the request of the Yemeni government, UNESCO launched a successful inter-

been said to analyse the impact of the resulting tourism and development.

Physical and Historical

Located in the south-western tip of the Arabian Peninsula Sana’a lies in a fertile basin over two thousand metres above sea level, on a major communication axis that crosses the mountains

of Yemen. As part of the African Horn where the Red Sea meets the Indian Ocean, it is often described as the ancestral heartland of the Arabs.

Sana’a is one of the most ancient surviving cities in Arabia and arguably the longest continually inhabited city in the world. By the first century BC Sana’a emerged as a centre of the inland trade route. After the withdrawal of the Turks in 1630, Sana’a became the seat of an independent imam. This ushered in a period of prosperity for the city which

lasted for nearly two centuries and can still be seen in the quality and quantity of buildings from that time. Most of the domestic architecture still standing in the city dates from this period and later, while the extant mosques reach back well over one thousand years and fragments of towers date to four centuries before the rise of Islam.

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Sana’a’s architectural vocabulary was already well formed by the tenth century when Ibn Rustah wrote that most of the houses “are adorned with gypsum, baked bricks, and symmetrical stones.” The architectural heritage of Sana’a consists of multi-storey buildings decorated with geometric shapes and horizontal bands rendered in gypsum,

Timber is in short supply since trees are relatively rare and small and so the traditional architecture of Sana’a relies on stone and clay bricks decorated with gypsum plaster. Symmetrical balance is clearly a desirable characteristic in the houses of Sana’a and facades have strong ingredients of conventional formality.

Impacts of Modernisation

Sana’a has been an important centre in south western Arabia for nearly 2000 years. Until the end of the Yemeni civil war in 1969 the city was closed to outsiders for two centuries, its unique multi-storey buildings protected behind mud walls. A traditional way of life was preserved in a society that values looking after poor people and old animals. The city, though in need of maintenance, was clean and sanitary.

The opening of the country to the outside world in the 1970s, and the growth which accompanied the decision to make Sana’a the capital of the new Yemen Arab Republic, posed new challenges to the old city. The huge influx of dollars from the oil boom in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, combined with a rapidly growing population, placed considerable stress on the old city’s historic buildings and its inadequate infrastructure. Sana’a grew extraordinarily fast as oil workers returning home invested their money in property.

The population grew from about 55,000 in 1970 to 250,000 in 1982. By 1978 growth was out of control and with the new money came more automobiles.

narrow streets, urban gardens, elegant minarets and imposing monuments.

The streets of the city are flanked by towering houses five to nine storeys high. The houses are constructed of ashlar stonework from six to ten metres above street level where exposed brickwork then takes over. In Sana’a the space between buildings is just wide enough for pedestrians and mule-drawn carts.

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Urban Yemenis abandoned their houses because they could not afford to maintain them, and preferred new villas out of town. The main shopping, banking and government services shifted out of the old city, mainly to the west and northwest. Educational, recreational, entertainment and health facilities also moved away to an area outside the walls. Wealthier residents moved away due to the unsanitary condition of the streets, lack of services and the relative inaccessibility of their houses by vehicles. They relocated to areas that promised a modern lifestyle adjacent to new facilities. Lower income Yemenis

moved into the old city and conditions deteriorated.

Economic development in Sana’a made the introduction of modern construction technology unavoidable. New reinforced concrete structures became eyesores alongside the traditional buildings. Additionally they proved to have adverse effects on traditional construction materials.

Concrete’s inflexibility cracked surrounding brick and deposited salts that deteriorated the soft traditional materials. As a result of modernisation efforts in the old city, including the introduction of water and sanitation systems without adequate drainage, thirty historic houses collapsed between 1978 and 1979.

Conservation Philosophy

In reaction to this grave state of ill repair, Yemeni officials and foreign technical advisors working in Sana’a pressed for the conservation of the city.

They proposed that the whole town should be saved and that preservation challenges could be solved incrementally. The international community criticised this approach. The main idea was to promote a living city while balancing the needs of conservation and development. Ronald Lewcock, an active advocate of the plan, summed up the primary motivation behind this philosophy: “Its value lies not so much in the merit of the individual buildings, important though they may be, as in the unforgettable impression made by the whole of an entire city of splendid buildings combining to create an urban effect of extraordinary fascination and beauty.”

Since the early 1980s a campaign to restore and upgrade the city has been ongoing. The campaign, as outlined in a UNESCO publication, presents a strategy to preserve as much of the physical context and as many of the monuments as possible in order to maintain the city’s unique character together with its sense of age and history. It also aims to ensure the preservation and rehabilitation of the traditional way of life of the medieval city as much as possible for those who desire it, without stifling urban life or

the population’s desire for change and improved facilities.

The plan also provides typical examples of the architectural conservation that is necessary.

Adaptive strategies have led to new functions for historic buildings, including a women’s technical school, an art gallery, a craft centre, and guest houses. Throughout the city, local owners were encouraged to renovate their houses. Work continued as Swiss, Italians and others renovated buildings for use as hotels, cultural centres and private residences. Both the public and private restorations have shown considerable sensitivity to the architectural features of Sana’a, incorporating traditional materials and construction techniques in the restoration process.

New markets are now more accessible to vehicular traffic, thus boosting business and revitalising the area’s once sagging economy. Cultural life in the city has also improved with the addition of galleries and craft centres which have encouraged the arts and provided employment for craftsmen.

Conclusion

Preservation controls have been put in place but are not properly enforced. Perhaps the most bittersweet aspect of successful implementation of the plan is the growth of heritage tourism. The mixed blessing of tourism is that while it introduces new forms of revenue, it displaces residents and substitutes a locally sustainable economy with one reliant on foreign currency. There are considerable worries about the detrimental effects of tourism on historic sites from Uzbekistan to the United Kingdom. Its influence on Sana’a has yet to be properly analysed. Such a study should be conducted soon to avoid returning to the dilapidated state of the city which preservationists faced in the late 1970s.

In the meantime, it is appropriate to recognise the victories of those who have been active in conserving the old walled city of Sana’a. The quality of life has improved, people have moved back, and the streets are now clean. In many ways the preservationists involved have solved what Michael Welbank calls the most intractable conservation problem today: the conservation of a cohesive high-quality urban area. In writing about the challenges of combining conservation and development in Third World countries he suggests that cities take a middle course where both interests come together in a “give and take” policy. It seems that Sana’a has accomplished this balance, ensuring that the city remains populated and, perhaps most importantly, enlisting the support and the interest of its citizens in the preservation of the past for future generations. •

T. Luke Young has a Bachelor’s degree in Historic Preservation from Roger Williams University, Master’s degrees in Architectural Studies and in Urban Planning, from MIT.

Modern housing is directly adjacent to the old city

Traditional Buildings

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Through October

Friday Nights Thought Forum London’s weekly open gathering.

Time: 19:30 - 21:00 Venue: Islamic Centre of England

5-6 October 2013

SOAS Palestine Society Conference: Self-Critique, Two Decades after Oslo 9th Annual Conference In its embrace of self-criticism, the conference will focus on the ways Palestinian leadership and elites have become embedded in the logic of settler colonialism, embraced neoliberal capitalism, and reproduced social and political accommodation of the Oslo process.

Time: 09:00 -18:00 Venue: Brunei Lecture theatre, SOAS, University of London, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG Web: www.soaspalsoc.org/conference/ Email: palestineconference@googlemail.com

9 October 2013

Education in the Middle East

Time: 13:00 - 16:30 Venue: Manchester Web: www.ecctis.co.uk/NARIC/ organisations/Training/schedule.aspx Email: training@naric.org.uk Telephone: +44 (0)871 330 7303

Samia Halaby New Paintings Ayyam Gallery London presents an exhibition of paintings by pioneering Palestinian artist Samia Halaby, who is widely credited with inspiring the new school of abstraction in contemporary Arab art. Parallel to her artistic career, Halaby is an active political campaigner for Palestine, as well as a scholar who has been instrumental to the documentation of Palestinian art, publishing her landmark text ‘Liberation Art of Palestine: Palestinian Painting and Sculpture in the Second Half of the 20th Century’ in 2002.

Ticket: Free Time: 6:00pm Venue: 143 New Bond Street, 1st Floor, W1S 2TP Email: london@ayyamgallery.com Tel: +44 (0) 207 409 3568 Web: www.arabbritishcentre.org.uk/events/ samia-halaby-new-paintings

9 – 20 October

57th BFI London Film Festival

This session will give a comprehensive overview of the structure of education systems in the Middle East (the Arabic speaking countries including North Africa as well as Iran) covering secondary education, vocational studies, higher education, accreditation and recent developments. It will also equip participants to better understand original language documents and identify key features. This course is recommended for higher education admissions staff.

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The Festival will screen a total of 234 fiction and documentary features, including 22 world Premieres, 16 international Premieres, 29 European Premieres and 20 Archive films. There will also be screenings of 134 live action and animated shorts. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, master classes and other special events.

Venues: BFI Southbank, BFI imax, and other venues For ticket price visit: https://whatson.bfi.org. uk/lff/Online/festival-ticket-prices Web: www.bfi.org.uk/lff

15 October 2013

24 October 2013

Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) Course

An Anatolian Stonehenge: Göbekli Tepe - Stone Age sanctuaries in south-eastern Turkey

Simply Sharia Human Capital (SSHC) is offering a unique two-day opportunity to gain the ground-breaking, globally recognised IFQ improving career prospects, giving job focus and enhancing professional capabilities. The course will be delivered by expert training practitioners who have been accredited by the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI).

Price: £350 Time: 09:00am-05:00pm Venue: London Web: www.simplyshariaifq3-eorg.eventbrite. co.uk/ Phone: +44 20 7645 0680 Email: info@simplysharia.com

Insight with Paul Danahar: The New Middle East Arab British Centre Nearly three years after the start of the revolution in Tunisia, which was followed by uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, many are beginning to examine what has changed in the region. Fighting still rages in Syria’s bloody civil war and Egypt has seen its military return while sectarian divisions in the region are rife.

The Arab British Centre has organised a session with the BBC’s Middle East Bureau Chief, Paul Danahar, author of the book ‘The New Middle East: The World After the Arab Spring’ to offer an analysis of this ‘new order’. He will be sharing his insight of events and what he feels the future holds for the region and its relationship with the West.

Ticket: £12.50 Time: 7:00pm -10:00pm Venue: Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ Web: www.arabbritishcentre.org.uk/events/ insight-paul-danahar-new-middle-east

A lecture on new discoveries at Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia dating to 10,000–9000 BC, organised by Noe Annual Memorial Lecture in the religious traditions of the Middle East.

Göbekli Tepe is a unique site. After 18 years of excavation, we now know that it is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.

Ticket: Free, booking essential Time: 18.30–19.30 Venue: BP Lecture Theatre, The British Museum Web: www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/ events_calendar/

26 October 2013

IMI Masjid Talk on Mental health Muslim Women Network UK

Registration Fee: £5 Time: 7pm – 9pm Venue: Godly Play Room, Basement, St Johns Church, 73 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8TY Web: www.mwnuk.co.uk/events.php Email: admin@inclusivemosqueinitiative.org

University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, United Kingdom Web: www.soas.ac.uk/southasianstudies/ musa/events/ Email: musa@soas.ac.uk Telephone: 020 7898 4893/2

29 October 2013

Persian and Islamic Arts: Trans-Cultural Geographies – A Research Seminar Studying the Stars in Iran: Positioning Al-Sufi’s Book of Constellations in Islamic Art History.

Speaker(s): Dr. Moya Carey (Iran Heritage Foundation Curator for the Iranian Collections, Victoria and Albert Museum)

Ticket: Open to all, free admission Time: 18:00 Venue: Research Forum South Room, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN Phone: +44 (0) 20 7872 0220 Web: www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum

29-31 October 2013

9th World Islamic Economic Forum

The Graduate Conference is a one day event, bringing together crossdisciplinary research on Muslim South Asia. Young researchers from across the UK, Europe, US and Asia are invited to present their work in thematic panels moderated by established academics in the relevant field.

Time: 9:00 AM- 5:00 PM Venue: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, SOAS

30 October 2013

Law and the Muslim World (Conference) A forum of international scholars who offer topics on the concept and practice of law within the Islamic world and how it is seen by Muslim nations within international frameworks.

Web: www.oxfordlawintl.org.uk Email: register@oxfordlawintl.org.uk

Islamic Futures in Post-Normal Times A lecture by Ziauddin Sardar Organised by The Association of Muslim Social Scientists, AMSS UK, and the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster.

“From the perspective of Islam and Muslim societies, post-normal times suggest that there are no simple, onedimensional answers to our contemporary problems. Thus, Islam cannot be seen just as a faith and religion, a set of beliefs with a list of dos and don’ts.

It has to be appreciated as an integrated and holistic worldview. This requires us to rethink Islam, re-imagine it as an ethical and moral system, and rebuild it, brick by brick, from first principles.”

28 October 2013

Muslim South Asia Graduate Research Conference

Venue: ExCel London Web: www.9thwief.org Email: enquiry@wief.org Tel: +603 2163 5500

“At the 9th WIEF, sessions will be adapted to increase delegates’ participation as they explore business and investment opportunities, as well as engage in discourse on topical issues and how best to address them. Key areas of focus at the upcoming forum in London include Islamic banking and finance, technology, infrastructure development, health, exports, education and youth.”

Time: TBA Venue: University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street Web: www. amssuk.com/events

Time: 9am - 6pm 67