Miracle 515-March 27, 2020

Volume 20 Issue 515- Shaban 3, 1441H, March 27, 2020

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BC, CANADA First Muslim Biweekly & Bilingual

THE

12

Coronavirus (COID-19) Update from

3 Egypt’s Al-Azhar

12 B.C. imposes mora-

6

17

14

torium on evictions, AICP Annual celebration of Isra’ &

issues fatwa permit..

25 dead in attack Saudi Arabia bans prayers at mosques

Guidance 5 Prophetic on Epidemic Disease: disease 8 Coronavirus (COVID-19) Symp

15 BJP, Biryani and a dark secret

Countries where COVID-19 has spread

199 Countries and Territories around the world have reported a total of 532,263 confirmed cases of the coronavirus COVID-19 that originated from Wuhan, China, and a death toll of 24,090 deaths.

Last updated: March 27, 2020, 04:36 GMT

U.S. troops at the Canadian border?

PM says it ‘needs to remain’ unmilitarized

To be continued at page 12

2

Rajab 18, 1441H March 13, 2020

T

HE country is now effectively in a state of lockdown as the battle against the coronavirus outbreak enters a critical phase. A curfew appears imminent in parts of the country, given the exponential rise in the number of cases. The military has been deployed in aid of the civilian administration to maintain law and order.

But flattening the curve of the infection requires a much greater effort and more resources.

Containing the global pandemic at home is undoubtedly one of the most serious challenges this country has ever confronted. It is not just about winning this battle, but also what lies in the aftermath. The economic and social impact of the outbreak is huge for a country that has been lurching from one crisis to another.

The fight against the pandemic has also exposed the various fault lines.

A broken healthcare system is now being tested for a crisis beyond its capacity. Despite the warning, we have been caught unprepared. It was either a state of deniability or false hope that the virus would die in the hot weather that prevented timely action.

Initially brought from outside, the virus has now spread to communities largely because of our failure to take timely measures to contain its spread. Then there is the lack of awareness and certain social practices that have led to a spike in the number of cases. Religious congregations continued, despite the warnings. Such gatherings are the biggest source of spread of the infection.

The fight against the pandemic has exposed the various fault lines.

Given our limited resources, not

o p i n i o n

Hard times ahead every infected individual can be tested and thus unknowingly transmits the virus to members of his or her family and community.

The number of cases being reported is just the tip of the iceberg. Not surprisingly, the number of cases is multiplying each day.

Surely one must not get panicky, but it is always good to have a clear picture in order to handle the situation better. It is going to be a long battle and one expects the government to be prepared for that and not remain in a state of denial.

There is some degree of coherence in the federal government’s strategy to deal with the problem now, but it is still not enough, given the enormity of the crisis. The lack of coordination between the federal and provincial government is pronounced and can worsen the situation. The reasons for this are political and are also linked to the existing confusion over the distribution of power. But the issue could have easily been resolved had there been a show of greater political maturity on the part of Prime Minister Imran Khan. So far, a failure of leadership has been evident in this crisis.

When a crisis arises, the first thing that people do is look towards their leader — but the response in this case has been lacking. This situation is not very reassuring in such testing times. An impromptu address to the nation on Sunday left a large section of the people confused as the idea of a lockdown to stop the spread of the virus was criticised. It appeared that this criticism was directed at the Sindh government that had already announced closing down the province.

Need a 15% reduction for ‘Calamity of the next three years Corona Virus & in Property Tax Scientific Wash’!

By: Mahmood Awan, In the wake of the coronavirus epidemic in BC and around the world, the Canadian federal government has reduced the interest rate twice to accommodate individuals and businesses. No one has mentioned Property Tax which will be due July 2, 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic will hopefully settle down by the end of this year, but the effects will remain on the economy for years to come. I would like to see Property tax relief for at least the next three years. Mr. Malcolm Brodie, the mayor of Richmond, likes to state that the tax is calculated on the mill rate. Households and businesses, small or large, need a 15% reduction for the next three years.

After three years, hopefully the economy will bounce back. I request everyone to contact their city and provincial officials to act now before property taxes are due.

Who is going to suffer? Middle class households, low income families, small businesses and small wage earners, not big executives earning large salaries.

The Province needs to take this issue extremely seriously to prevent undue hardship on individuals.

Individuals must be protected and not the coffers of the cities.

Property tax is the largest burden on individuals. info:Mawan20@hotmail.com

By: Gulshan Aalani In this time of calamity of Corona Virus -C-19 pandemic, most of the time we hear the bands played of ‘Wash hands’. Followed by all kinds of precautionary restrictions of social distances suggesting self Quarantine of no hugging, no kissing, no hand shake, no social gatherings, no travelling etc. Though, for many this new way of ‘life style’ is not so practical and not easy to accept it: except for those who are already since 14c. following many of the above rules of health, ethics and moral values.

Unfortunately, this virus has the devastating impact on jobs, business and overall economic, it is unbelievable.

Though, in reality just hand washing is not sufficient, especially, for those who travel by public transport touching the contaminated surfaces of the dirty seats, Metal Bars, Poles and hanging straps that has all kinds of germs as some people sneeze covering mouth with the palm of the hand, some pick noses without using tissues: in case of contagious Corona Virus remains on the surface of plastic or Metal for 2 days.(Ref. Dr. Oz. show).

Such certain travelers aren’t aware of the danger and have no idea of cleanliness and social etiquette, so are they going to wash hands and where?

The provincial administration took this measure after a spike in the number of victims of the virus.

Sindh has the highest number of confirmed cases and there were clear danger signs that the situation would spiral out of control if restrictions on the movement of people were not enforced. But it seems that the prime minister did not recognise the emergency situation prevailing in the country’s second most populated province, leading observers to note that this was because Sindh was being ruled by his opponents.

The prime minister declared that he would not impose restrictions that carried huge economic costs, particularly for the poor. But many refused to buy his argument that if Pakistan had the kind of resources which Italy, France, the US or UK had, he would fully lock down the country.

Interestingly, hours later the Punjab government, led by the prime minister’s party, announced its decision to enforce a partial lockdown. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have done the same and now much of the country has practically shut down. Who then took the lockdown decision?

That makes one wonder what the prime minister’s ire was all about.

Would it not have been better had a meeting of the Council of Common Interests been called to evolve a common strategy and a national narrative to fight a battle that represents the biggest threat to national security?

No battle can be won without uniting the nation and taking all stakeholders on board. One must say that both the PPP and PMLN have shown political maturity Do they have a facility to wash hands before they enter the Grocery stores and touch the fruits and vegetables? In that case, everyone should also wear plastic gloves before touching anything in the stores. Washing hands, wearing Gloves and Mask must be worn all the time when outside.

Some who hates the Niqab are also forcefully urged to wear a Mask.

Now we see the world wide worn Mask/Niqab for good reasons, yet we hate it like we hate Niqab ordered by the Divine for number of reasons.

Sadly in the past in Biblical time to today mankind has gone through such calamities of different dangerous deadly diseases, including the invasion of Locust in Africa that has increased the sufferings of farmers.

This is like history is repeating itself for the same reasons.

Evidently, some preachers and intellectuals describe it according to the Scriptures as divine punishment of our ‘Karma’-sins, and for disobedient to the divine laws, some describe it as a ‘test’ from Almighty Allah-Creator and if kept patience we can pass the test with flying colors that would bring us more closer to HIM and be thankful to HIM for guiding us in the good and bad times.

Some 14C ago mankind was given the solutions for all kinds of calamities through the Divine legislated law of ‘cleanliness, Social structure, good behavior of ethics and moral values, keeping away from Clubs, and Bars.

The rule of Quarantine first was

by offering the government their full cooperation. An acknowledgement from the prime minister is still awaited.

It is generally the ruling party that takes the initiative in seeking the opposition’s support on national issues, but not in the PTI’s case. The prime minister should have learnt some lessons from the Sindh chief minister who took all opposition parties on board while announcing the decision to impose the lockdown. Interestingly, the PTI, which is the main opposition party in Sindh, was also included in the deliberations. That helped in the implementation of the restriction more effectively.

This is, perhaps, the worst crisis that the country has faced. While measures like lockdowns are indeed essential to contain the infection, they come at a huge economic cost. The suspension of almost all economic activities and the transport system will have serious economic consequence.

It will affect not only the poorer sections of the population, but also the middle classes, putting greater strain on an already troubled financial situation. The resultant unemployment and displacement could have serious social implications.

Indeed, the federal government has announced a financial support package to minimise the impact of the pandemic and the lockdown, but we must be prepared for more hardship. That makes it imperative for the prime minister to create a national consensus. It is the handling of a crisis that makes or breaks a leader.

Courtesy by: Mr. Zahid Hussain

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miraclenews@telus.net established by the final ProphetMessenger Muhammad (saws), frequent hand washing was suggested by him, including the perfect ‘Scientific Wash’ called W’udu’ to be performed before every Islamic prayer/Salat and every action of washing is proven Medicinal benefits: washing hands up to the elbow like the Medical Surgeons perform before the Surgery, washing hands rubbing palms and fingers, washing Toes by rubbing in between toes and bottom of the feet that has acupressure points, sniffing water to wash nose removes the blockage of the Sinus drainage etc.

Who can deny that every divine order has many reasons included and not just one and has curable answers. Today the modern technology moves at the speed of the Light, yet doesn’t have all curable answers.

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3

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

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4

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

PAKISTAN

PM Imran ready to get input of Egypt’s Al-Azhar issues fatwa permitting parties to fight Covid-19 Juma prayers’ suspension in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: During his first interaction with the parliamentary leaders of key political parties through a video link after the outbreak of coronavirus in the country, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday stressed the need for fighting the pandemic collectively and said he was ready to get input from all the parties.

“We are ready to get an input from all of you. I want that we should win this war collectively. When we will win this war, it will be the victory of Pakistan, all provinces and all the political parties,” the prime minister said in his opening remarks.

However, despite these positive remarks by

the prime minister, the meeting convened

by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to discuss the prevailing situation in the country due to spread of coronavirus, ran into disarray as Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari boycotted the proceedings when the prime minister abruptly left the meeting after making opening speech and without listening to the other participants. Shahbaz, Bilawal boycott video meeting when Imran abruptly leaves after making opening speech Source www.dawn.com/news

Pakistan’s young doctors lead Covid-19 battlel

For Dr Shobha Luxmi, life has completely changed since she was appointed head of an isolation ward for the coronavirus patients at the government-run Dow University of Health Sciences Hospital in Karachi.

She is one of thousands of medical professionals at the forefront of Pakistan’s battle against a formidable coronavirus outbreak, which has left millions under lockdown in the country. The challenge is all the more greater given the country’s weak public health system. Apart from the risk of contracting the virus from patients, the doctors, nurses, and other medical staff are also constantly dealing with a growing sense of anxiety and the exhaustion of their unending shifts. “My life has turned upside down over these past few weeks. I have almost been working round the clock. I just get a few hours of sleep, and even then I am thinking about the hospital,” Luxmi, 40, an expert at the Dow University of Health Sciences, told Anadolu Agency.

She receives hundreds of calls and emails each day, in addition to attending meetings, monitoring screenings of suspected patients, and treating patients who have tested positive. Her hospital is receiving about 500 patients every day, at least 100 of whom are screened for Covid-19, and four to five are testing positive on a daily basis.“Before this, I only had teaching and administrative duties. Now it seems the burden of the entire world is on my shoulders. I do not switch off my mobile phone for a minute because I know there may be an urgent call at any moment,” she said.

“I have had no time for my only daughter

or her studies, my family, or my parents. My daughter has started complaining now; I have not cooked for her for over two weeks.”

Dr Omer Sultan, 36, carefully donned his protective suit, face mask, gloves, and goggles in a changing room at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) in Karachi, one of the country’s largest medical facilities, before entering an isolation ward to check on suspected Covid-19 patients.

“Things have totally changed after the coronavirus outbreak. We were never this careful about our own safety. It really has become a nerve-wracking job,” Sultan, an office-bearer of the Young Doctors’ Association, told Anadolu Agency. “This is not just my story.

Every doctor, nurse, paramedic, and even the security guards, are risking their lives to save others.”

He was full of praise for the nursing staff, especially the women who make up around 70per cent of the total strength, for being at the forefront of the battle against Covid-19.

“They have done a tremendous job. They have been away from their homes and families to serve the nation. I, as a doctor, feel that these women have done a greater job than any of the men in this profession.”

The dedication of these medical professionals is not lost on their fellow countrymen, as Pakistanis across the country will wave white flags from their rooftops and windows on March 27 to pay tribute to their selflessness and commitment.

“This is not a favour to anyone; this is our duty, and our time to serve our nation,” said Luxmi. Source www.dawn.com/news

ISLAMABAD: Egypt’s Al-Azhar has issued a fatwa on the request of President Dr Arif Alvi permitting suspension of Friday prayers to control the spread of deadly coronavirus across Pakistan.

“I am thankful to Grand Imam Shaikh of AlAzhar and Supreme Council for responding to my personal request to provide guidance to us with regard to Farz Jamaat and Juma prayers in mosques during coronavirus attack,” the president said in a tweet on Wednesday.

President Alvi through Egypt’s ambassador in Pakistan had sought guidance from AlAzhar institution, an authority on Islamic injunctions, for a word on the suspension of congregational prayers at mosques amid spike in coronavirus cases.

He also appealed to religious leaders in the country to urgently take action on the fatwa of Egypt’s Al-Azhar institution that termed it purely Islamic to cancel Friday prayers over coronavirus concerns. Dr Alvi mentioned that the countries already suspending congregational prayers included the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.

The fatwa stressed that public gatherings, including congregational prayers at mosques, could result in spread of coronavirus and the governments of Muslim countries had full jurisdiction to cancel such events.

It also emphasized amending Azaan (call to prayer) with words ‘Salaat Fi Buyut-e-kum’, meaning ‘pray in your homes’ instead of the usual ‘come to prayer’. Also, families within their homes can arrange group prayers.

The edict says it is obligatory for Muslims to abide by the health instructions of the state in case of crisis and avoid following rumours and unofficial information.

As per credible medical reports, the coronavirus spreads very easily and quickly. In this situation, the fatwa said, saving human lives and protecting them from all risks and threats was in line with the great concept of Islam.

“In view of risks to the lives of people, the officials in Muslim countries have full authority to cancel Friday prayers and other congregational prayers.

“Furthermore, the older people should remain at their homes and follow the stated medical guidelines as all evidences clearly show that public gatherings, including prayers, constitute a conducive environment for virus,” it said.

The fatwa cites Abu Dawood narrating Ibn Abbas, who recounted that Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) said that fear of sickness is an excuse for missing Juma payers.

Moreover, Abd Al-Rahman Ibn Auf stated that the Prophet (PBUH) forbade those with unpleasant smell to avoid going to mosques in order to protect other faithful from disturbance. Source www.dawn.com/news

The United States dollar continued its climb against the rupee on Thursday, closing at an all-time high of Rs167 in the interbank market, according to rates provided by the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan.

Compared to the opening value of Rs162.5, the dollar rose by Rs4.5, which translates into an increase of 2.77 per cent.

Similarly, the rates provided by the State Bank of Pakistan’s ready counter showed the greenback at Rs166.1, up from the opening value of Rs161.6 – again, a jump of Rs4.5.

“Foreigners are unloading their holdings in the T-bills prematurely due to the fear caused by the coronavirus, which has pushed up the demand for dollars in the interbank. Once that subsides, the situation will ease,” said Forex Association of Pakistan President Malik Bostan.

In addition, the emergency rate cut by the State Bank of Pakistan on Mar 24 has further hastened foreign unloading in the treasury bills, which do not offer as high a return anymore, according to currency dealers.

During this month, foreigners have divested over $1.5 billion from the T-bills, with outflows on Mar 25 alone standing at $71m.

Meanwhile, the open market witnessed no

change as the dollar held steady at Rs160 but that is largely because the exchange companies were mostly closed due the ongoing lockdown.

“Operations were not even 1pc of the original level with only a handful of branches open with little to no customers,” said Bostan. Due to this, exchange companies haven’t been able to supply cash to the interbank market, which has also put the rupee under strain, he added.

“The government is negotiating with multilateral parties for a $3.7bn coronavirus relief package. If done correctly, it is possible that Pakistan may have a soft landing once the crisis dies down – and that’s a long way from now,” said Eman Khan, an analyst at Tresmark. Within the past two days, the dollar has gained Rs8, as compared to Wednesday’s opening value of Rs159, representing a rise of 5.03pc After staying calm for almost half a year, the currency market started witnessing volatility from March 9 when rupee lost Rs3.65 in a single day.

Since then, the dollar has jumped a cumulative Rs11.75 (or 8.3pc) to Rs167 as of today’s close. Source www.dawn.com/news

Dollar gains Rs4.5 in interbank, reaches record high of Rs167

5

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

f a i th

Religion of Peace and Mercy

By: Majeed Lakhani

I

slam stands for peace, mercy, kindness, compassion, affection, generosity, magnanimity, friendship, fraternity, brotherhood and good conducts It leads to the best way of life to achieve prosperity, salvation, felicity, eternal bliss of paradise and infinite mercy of Allah in hereafter.

Allah describes his Rasul as: “and we have not sent you but as a mercy for the entire creation.”

Quran: 21/107 Commands to Return Evil with Goodness Quran not only instructs to recompense goodness with goodness, but also bids Muslims to reply evil with goodness!

“Repel thou the evil with that which is fairer.” (23:96) “Shall the recompense of goodness be other than goodness?” (55:60) This verse, which is full of affection, clemency and amity, is an Islamic motto.

Islamic Clemency even with nonMuslims “Say unto those who believe, that they forgive those who do not look for the days of God, that He may recompense people for that they have been earning.” (45:14) According to the above verse, Islamic clemency and benevolence is not allocated and restricted just to the Muslims and believers. Rather, God instructs Muslims to be kind with non-Muslims too.

We read in the story of People of Lot that the divine messengers commissioned for punishment appeared to Hazrat Abraham (as) in the shape of strangers. They were commissioned to destroy and ruin the city of People of Lot. Ibrahim alaie salam being benevolent in clemency was at unease and sought alleviation though People of Lot were one of the most sinful, tainted and dirty of the precedent nations, but the angels replied: “O Abraham, turn away from this; thy Lord’s command has surely come, and there is coming upon them a chastisement not to be turned back.” (11:76) Quran refers to the Prophet’s (S) Benevolence: “It was by mercy of God that thou were gentle to them; had thou been harsh and hard of heart, they would have scattered from about thee.”

(3:159) According to this verse, Prophet’s (S) clemency and benevolence (originating from divine mercy) attracted people and their trust to him. We

The virtue of performing wudu’ and salat This hadith is also narrated on the authority with the same chain of transmitters and in the hadith of Abu Usama the words are: He who performed the ablution well and then offered the obligatory prayer.

Sahih Al Muslim 2: Chapter 3, Hadith 542

Prophetic Guidance on Epidemic Disease: Coronavirus 2020

read in verse 63 of surah Anfal: “Had thou expended all that is in the earth, thou could not have brought their hearts together; but God brought their hearts together; surely He is All-mighty, All-wise.”

(8:63) Formation of a powerful Muslim nation from amongst the stubborn and ignorant people, while changing their scattered and spiteful hearts to

By Shaykh Hasib Noor said, ‘You have the rest of the people as well as the hearts that are united and kind was a n light of the spread of COVID-19, Muslims Companions of the Messenger of Allah , and we divine miracle. especially in this time are in need of guidance. do not think that you should expose them to this The Legacy Institute has released a research pa- plague.’ ‘Umar then said, ‘Leave.’ Then he said, ‘Call Peace and Truce, the Basic Islamic per by Shaykh Hasib Noor in order to expound on the Ansar (the helpers, the citizens of Madinah that Program Prophetic Guidance on Epidemic Disease: Corona- gave refuge to all the migrants that came to the city) “O believers, enter the peace, all virus 2020. for me,’ and I called them and he consulted them. of you, and follow not the steps of The paper highlights what the Islamic theodicy of 18 Ibn Majah 4042 and Bukhari 3176 Satan; he is a manifest foe to you.” understanding epidemic disease is, Divine wis- Their reaction was as the Muhajirun and disagreed (2:208) doms as defined by Islamic theology, the juris- as they had disagreed. He said, ‘Leave.’ Then he said, According to the above verse, peace prudence (fiqh) related to epidemics and plague, ‘Call those who are here of the elders of Quraysh and truce is the basic Islamic proa brief historical timeline of epidemics in Makkah who emigrated the year of the Conquest of Makgram. Qur’an calls those who arouse and Madinah, an analytical breakdown of a plague kah.’ So I called them, and none among them disadissidence, and seek war– followers prophesied by the Prophet Muhammad peace be greed about it. They said, ‘We think that you should of Satan. In other words, peace and on him that occurred at the time of the companions return with the people and not expose them to this truce is a divine and merciful attiand how they dealt with it, explaining the notion of plague.’ tude, while war, arousing dissidence Divine Decree in the case of epidemics, examples of So ‘Umar made an announcement among the peoand violence is a Satanic and devilish notable scholars in dealing with epidemics of their ple: ‘I am returning in the morning, so return as one. time and their writings, the Prophetic method of well.’ Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn Jarrah said, ‘Are you fleeAmity and Mercy Are Among the handling epidemics: preventative measures, spir- ing from the decree of Allah?’ ‘Umar said, ‘If only Signs of God itual aspects of overcoming calamities and difficul- someone other than you had said that, Abu ‘UbaySome verses of Holy Qur’an indicate ties, prophetic prayers for epidemics and sickness, dah!’ the signs of God’s Magnificence: and defining our view of how Muslims confront Yes, ‘we are fleeing from the decree of Allah to the “And of His signs is that He created afflictions from the words of Bediuzzaman Said decree of Allah‘. Do you think that if you had camfor you, of yourselves, spouses, that Nursi and Imam Al Ghazali. els and they went down into a valley which had two you might repose in them, and He The story of Umar is also narrated and explained in sides, one of which was fertile and the other barhas set between you love and mercy. detail in the paper: Download Here ren. Is it not that if you grazed them on the fertile Surely in that are signs for a people ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas narrates the events when side, then that grazing would be by the decree of who consider.” (30:21) ‘Umar ibn AlKhattab set out for Sham (Levant: Allah, and if you grazed them on the barren side, Right! “Bringing hearts together” is Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, etc). When he then that grazing would also be by the decree of Alone of the divine signs, because othgot as far as a place called ‘Sargh’, the command- lah?’ ‘Abdul Rahman ibn ‘Awf -who had been aberwise, social life was not possible. ers of the army, Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn Jarrah and his sent on some errand- then came and said, ‘I have Dua (invocation) of Muslims for all companions met ‘Umar and told him that a plague some knowledge regarding this issue. I heard the Human Beings! had broken out in Sham. ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas said, Messenger of Allah say, “When you hear that [a Dua and blessings recited in the ‘Umar said to me, ‘Call the early Muhajirun (the plague] is in a land, do not go to it and if it occurs blessed month of Ramadan after earliest Muslims and those who were the immi- in a land that you are already in, then do not leave the obligatory daily prayers in the grants to Madinah) for me,’ I called them, sought it, fleeing from it.’” mosques throughout the world are their consultation and informed them that a plague ‘Umar praised Allah [due to him making the coranother indication of Islamic mercy had broken out in Sham. They disagreed. Some of rect decision] and then left.”21 and benevolence. Thereby, Muslims them said, ‘You have set out on a matter and we do Source: muslimmatters.org invoke God for solving problems of not think that you should retreat from it.’ Others all human beings (not only Muslims): “O Allah! Let all the dead to be cheerful!

Mar 27-April 10, 2020 Shaban 3-17 1441H O Allah! Let all the needy to be rich!

O Allah! Let all the hungry to be fed! Isl. Dt. Day Date Fajar Sunr Zawal Dhuhr Dhuhr Asar Shafi Asar Maghrib Isha O Allah! Let all the naked to be 3 Fri clothed!

4 Sat O Allah! Let all the indebted to get their debts paid!

5 Sun O Allah! Let the affairs of all the 6 Mon worried untangled!

7 Tue O Allah! Let all the captives to be 8 Wed liberated!

9 Thus O Allah! Let all the sick people to be Fri 10 healed!”

11 Sat One really enjoys the extensive Islamic mercy and extols Muslims’ 12 Sun charity, because most invocations 13 Mon

by Muslims are general and univer14 Tue sal and embrace all human beings 15 Wed from any race and mental attitude.

16 Thus Are these interesting and extensive 17 Fri invocations not the signs of Islamic mercy and benevolence?

For such Prayers are enjoined on believers at stated times: Quran ,n 4:103 Source: BCMA

I

Prayer Schedule in Greater Vancouver

6

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

Nat i o n a l

&

Feds announce boost to emergency COVID-19 aid benefit

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OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced the government is merging two previously introduced employment insurance benefits for Canadians who are now unemployed, or off work because of COVID-19. As part of this push to shut down most aspects of society and ensure people can be away from work or at home with their kids who aren’t in school right now, the federal government rolled out an initial multibillion dollar fiscal aid package that passed Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.

As part of this package the government initially unveiled separate emergency care and emergency support benefits, but they have now been combined into the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and will provide $2,000 a month for four months, for people who are off work and without an income as a result of the novel coronavirus.

Trudeau said this benefit will aid Canadians who have either lost their job or are off sick or taking care of their children because of COVID-19. He said that Canadians should receive this assistance approximately 10 days after applying.

“If you lost your job because of COVID-19, whether you’re full time contract or self-employed, this new benefit will be there for you.

If you’re sick or quarantined looking after someone sick, or at home taking care of your kids. It’s there for you. And even if you’re still employed but not receiving income because of this crisis, the CERB is there for you, Trudeau said. Speaking to this change, Finance Minister Bill Morneau cited the rapid pace in which the federal government is making announcements about its response plan, and said that in the week since the aid package was presented, the government realized there was a more efficient way to get the money out the door to those who need it.

The change also represents a boost to the overall amount of financial assistance the government is offering. Initially the government committed $27 billion in direct help and another $55 billion in economic stimulus. Now, Morneau said the direct help to families and businesses totals $52 billion, bringing the overall size of the economic aid package to $107 billion.

Morneau said the government managed to see this change updated in the legislation

that worked through both the House and Senate in the last 24 hours.

“We’ve designed this in a way so that it’s a wage subsidy delivered directly to employees, to people,” Morneau said.

The prime minister said that the federal government is doing everything it can to help those worried about paying bills, including boosting the teams processing the ballooning number of claims that have already been filed.The federal government is committing that more financial assistance will come as the pandemic wages on.

Nearly one million Canadians applied for employment insurance in the last week or so.

“Far too many Canadians are having these tough conversations about finances and their future… The hard truth is that people are out of work because of this crisis and worried about what comes next,” said Trudeau.

Morneau told the Senate on Wednesday that this emergency benefit should begin to roll out in early April, while other top-ups will be available in May, but that the government is doing what it can to get money to the Canadians that need it as quickly as possible under such an unprecedented situation.

“Clearly the systems were not built for this type of stress and strain,” Morneau told senators, calling the novel coronavirus pandemic a crisis “unlike any we have ever faced.”

“We expect a very challenging time, but a temporary time, to come out of this challenge with our economy intact, we unfortunately do not know either the depth nor duration of this challenge and that’s why are keen to be working together with other parties to make sure we continue to have that capacity to respond in a very, very timely way to every challenge we see,” said the finance minister. .Source: www.ctvnews.ca

Group of 20 leaders pledge to minimize disruption to trade and global supply chains and coordinate public health and financial measures DUBAI: Leaders of the biggest countries on Thursday took part in an extraordinary “virtual summit,” under the auspices of the Saudi Arabia G20 presidency, to combat the threat to lives and livelihood from the coronavirus disease COVID-19 — and issued a call for global action in the face of an unprecedented crisis.“We are strongly committed to presenting a united front against this common threat,” they said after two hours of digital debate organized by the Saudi G20 team in Riyadh. “We will protect human life, restore

global economic stability and lay out solid foundations for strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth,” the leaders added in their joint statement.

The traditional communique from the national leaders and other international leaders — which is expected after G20 summits but often delayed as a result of last-minute quibbles about wording and content — was published only minutes after King Salman closed the meeting.

In the face of the global pandemic, there seemed to be little disagreement that urgent and concerted action was necessary.

“The G20 is committed to do whatever it takes to overcome the pandemic, along with the World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, United Nations and other international organizations, working within their existing mandates. We are determined to spare no effort, both individually and collectively,” the leaders said.

Source: arabnews.com

U.S. becomes nation with highest number of COVID-19 cases

The human and economic toll of the lockdowns against the coronavirus mounted Thursday as India struggled to feed the multitudes, Italy shut down most of its industry, and a recordshattering 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in a single week. The number of cases in the United States climbed above China, where the virus originated late last year, to become the world’s highest.

As the number of infections worldwide reached a half-million and deaths climbed past 23,000, the damage to people’s livelihoods and their well-being from the effort to flatten the rising curve started to come into focus.In India, where the country’s 1.3 billion people were under orders to stay home, legions of poor were suddenly thrown out of work, and many families were left struggling for something to eat. “Our first concern is food, not the virus,” said Suresh Kumar, 60, a bicycle rickshaw rider in New Delhi whose family of six relies on his daily earnings of 300 rupees, or $4. “I don’t know how I will manage.” India has the world’s second-highest number of people living in extreme poverty. Rickshaw drivers, produce peddlers, maids, day labourers and other low-wage workers form the backbone of the economy, and many live day to day on their pay and have no savings to fall back on.

The Indian government announced a 1.7 trillion rupee ($22 billion) economic stimulus package that will deliver monthly rations of

grain and lentils to a staggering 800 million people. Around the globe, the death toll rose to about 8,200 in Italy, 4,100 in Spain and 1,700 in France, including a 16-year-old. The U.S. had more than 1,100 deaths, about 400 of them in New York State, the worst hotspot in the nation. Most of those victims were in New York City, where hospitals are getting swamped. On Thursday, a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University showed the United States now had the most confirmed cases of any country, with more than 82,000. Italy and China, the latter of which was the origin of the outbreak late last year, both had more than 80,000. Collectively the three countries accounted for about half the global total.

Louisiana was quickly becoming another smouldering hotspot. The number of new cases there jumped by more than 500 Thursday, for a total of over 2,300, with 86 deaths, including a 17-year-old, the health department said. The higher infection numbers reflected an increase in testing. New Orleans was gearing up for a possible overflow at hospitals, with plans to treat as many as 3,000 patients at the city’s convention centre.

Source: www.ctvnews.ca

KABUL: At least 25 people wereThe attack highlights country’s killed on Wednes­ day in an attack on a Sikh temple in Afghanistan’s capital where worshippers were offering morning prayers, the latest brutal assault claimed by the militant Islamic State (IS) group. The incident highlights the country’s ongoing security crisis and comes as the impoverished nation reels from a massive cut in US aid and struggles with a raging insurgency, political deadlock, and rising coronavirus cases. Pakistan condemned the assault and said there could be no justification for such an attack. In a statement, its Foreign Office expressed solidarity with the people of Afghanistan. A witness to the attack, Singh Sonny, said a man dressed in a police uniform burst into the temple in central Kabul, shot a guard and started attacking worshippers in the main hall. “Several other attackers also entered the building and they were going from room to room shooting people,” Sonny said. Only a few thousand Sikhs and Hindus are estimated to reside in what is an overwhelmingly Muslim country. Interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said the assault started around 7:45am. There were conflicting accounts about how many gunmen were involved, with security sources giving differing numbers between one and four. At least one attacker was subsequently killed by security forces in an hours-long clearing operation. IS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE intelligence group. The Taliban denied any involvement.

Anarkali Kaur Honaryar, a Sikh member of the Afghan parliament, said at the time of the attack about 150 people were in the temple, where worshippers gather for morning

prayers. “Some people inside the temple are hiding and their phones are off,” Honaryar said while the attack was continuing.

Arian said 25 civilians had been killed and eight others wounded, while 80 people had been rescued from the temple. Graphic images posted online showed several bodies as well as terrified people who appeared to be Sikhs running from the scene.

IS has a history of targeting Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, including a suicide bombing in Jalalabad in July 2018 that killed 19 people and wounded 21.

In recent months, the militant group has suffered mounting setbacks after being hunted

by US and Afghan forces as well as Taliban offensives targeting their fighters, but it still retains the ability to launch major assaults on urban centres.

Earlier this month, the group killed 32 people and wounded dozens more in an attack at a political gathering in Kabul.

To add to Afghanistan’s woes, Washington slashed the amount of aid to the country this week after President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, who has also proclaimed himself president, failed to resolve their standoff.

Following a visit to Kabul, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US would immediately cut $1 billion and was prepared to pull another $1bn in 2021, with further cuts possible. Source www.dawn.com/news

25 dead in attack on Sikh temple in Kabul

United G20 agrees on measures to combat coronavirus pandemic

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Travellers returning home must enter Health officials announce 66 new cases mandatory isolation: health minister of COVID-19 in B.C., no new deaths

TORONTO -- As of early Thursday morning, all travellers returning home to Canada must go into mandatory self-isolation for 14 days according to new measures being enacted under the federal Quarantine Act. On Wednesday morning, Health Minister Patty Hajdu told the Senate that all travellers, with the exception of “essential workers,” who return to Canada by air, sea, or land will be legally obligated to isolate themselves to prevent further spread of the novel coronavirus. She said the new measure will provide “clarity” to those re-entering the country.

During a scrum with reporters following the Senate proceedings, Hajdu said Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers stationed at points of entry will inform arriving passengers of their new obligation to self-isolate The health minister said international travellers who display symptoms of COVID-19 will be told they are not allowed to take public transportation to their place of isolation. Hajdu said the government will make travel arrangements for those who don’t have private transportation lined up.

The health minister also said travellers will be forbidden from self-isolating in a place where they may come into contact with vulnerable people, such as the elderly or those with underlying medical conditions. Hajdu said the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) will make alternative arrangements for accommodations for those individuals.

To ensure the rules are being followed, Hajdu said officials will collect travellers’ contact information to follow up with them and there will be random inspections.

“My officials are working with CBSA right now to ensure that people know that this will

be serious and that there will be significant penalties if people violate the quarantine,” she said. Travellers arriving at one of the four international airports and connecting onwards will be forced to isolate for 14 days in the city they land in, the health minister said.

“We will provide the accommodations and meals for those situations,” she said.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the health minister is using powers that she has under the Quarantine Act and they’re required now to flatten the curve of COVID-19 in the country.

“All Canadians have been working very, very hard to practice physical distancing in their lives and we have for some time now been urgently advising people coming into Canada to self-isolate for 14 days upon their return. We have decided that now is the time to make that measure mandatory,” Freeland said during a press conference on Parliament Hill on Wednesday.

“I think we all really appreciate that it is so important to have this self-isolation to protect the health and safety of Canadians.”

Freeland said the issue had been debated “at length” during the coronavirus cabinet committee meeting on Monday night.

While the government has been urging travellers returning to Canada to enter into a two-week self-isolation for weeks, the new measure will make it illegal to disobey. Those caught in contravention of the act may be subject to fines or even arrest, according to the federal government.

“I think all Canadians understand that this is a serious situation,” she said. “It will get worse before it gets better.”.......

Source: ctvnews.ca

VICTORIA -- Health officials in British Columbia announced 66 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 725 cases.

There have been no new deaths from the novel coronavirus in British Columbia over the last 24 hours, said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry in her daily update on the pandemic.

In Henry’s previous update, she announced one new death in B.C. and 42 more positive tests. The province’s death toll stands at 14, while a total of 186 people have fully recovered from the virus, according to Henry.

Of B.C.’s 725 cases, the vast majority remain in the Lower Mainland. Some 359 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and another 241 are located in the Fraser Health region. Those two regions include all of Metro Vancouver as well as surrounding areas as far away as Whistler and Hope.

Those two health regions are also the site of nine outbreaks at seniors’ care homes in the province. On Thursday, Henry said there had been no new outbreaks at such facilities, but a few new cases had been confirmed. At Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver, where the majority of the province’s deaths from COVID-19 have occurred, four additional residents and three additional staff members have tested positive for the virus, Henry said. There have also been three more positive tests at Haro Park Centre in Vancouver. Two of them are

residents of the facility, while the third is a staff member.

Henry said Thursday she has issued a new provincial health order aimed at minimizing the spread of the coronavirus between long-term care facilities. The order assigns health-care workers to a single facility for the duration of the pandemic, rather than allowing them to work at multiple facilities, which had been the case in the past.

Health officials have known workers travelling between seniors’ care homes is a problem for weeks - since the Lynn Valley outbreak began. On Wednesday, Henry said it took time to develop an order prohibiting people from working at multiple facilities because of the “patchwork” nature of employment for those individuals, with some working for facilities directly, others working for private contractors and others working for the public health system.

“That is one of the things that has facilitated movement and outbreaks in a number of different facilities, unfortunately, so far in British Columbia,” Henry said. “So this will be really important to help support those workers to be able to work and to maintain the support that we need in those facilities while decreasing that risk.” Elsewhere in the province, there are 62 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Interior Health region, 52 in the Island Health region and 11 in the Northern Health region.

Source: vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca

ANCOUVER -- Police in B.C.’s capital region say they were called to break up a house party Friday night, despite health officials’ warnings that people must maintain physical distance from each other during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officers from the Victoria Police Department’s Esquimalt division were called to a home in the 800 block of Phoenix Street - between Colville and Craigflower roads just after 10 p.m. Friday, according to a news release.

Police said they were called to respond to a noise complaint and discovered “a group of people having a house party.” Officers told the participants to go home and explained the dangers of holding such a gathering during the novel coronavirus pandemic. ”Some of the party-goers were undeterred, mistakenly believing their youth made them ‘immune’ to the virus,” Victoria police said in their release.

No one was arrested in the incident.

The experience has prompted police to issue a public reminder to maintain physical distance to stop the spread of the virus. Pro-

vincial health officials have said everyone in B.C. should be working from home, if possible, and only going out for essential reasons, such as picking up groceries.

Going out for fresh air is also acceptable, provided you maintain physical distance of at least two metres from other people while outside the home.

Health officials have also ordered personal service businesses - such as spas, salons and tattoo parlours - to close, and restaurants are allowed to open for take-out and delivery only, with no dine-in service.

The province has also declared a state of emergency and banned all public gatherings of more than 50 people, but provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has said that doesn’t mean smaller social gatherings are OK. They should still be avoided, if at all possible, Henry has said.

Both the City of Victoria and Township of Esquimalt have closed public buildings, cancelled public gatherings and closed playgrounds, something Victoria police reminded the public of in their news release.

Source: vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/

Youth does not make you ‘immune’ to COVID-19, VicPD reminds public after breaking up house party

When will Canada pass the peak of COVID-19 ? Even the experts don’t know

TORONTO -- As millions of Canadians spend their days at home, avoiding getting too close to anyone outside their households, one question rises above all: When will this be over? Ashleigh Tuite is about as wellpositioned as anyone to know the answer to that question. She’s an expert in developing mathematical models to forecast the spread of infectious diseases. Not only that, she’s part of a team at the University of Toronto that has been given federal money to specifically model the COVID-19 pandemic. But when it comes to what may happen next in Canada, Tuite has no special insight. “’I don’t know’ is the honest answer,” she told CTVNews.ca Thursday via telephone.

“It’s a little bit too early, at least here and with the data we have, to be able to do the forecasting work that I think there’s a huge appetite for.” Even knowing exactly how far Canada is into its COVID-19 outbreak is difficult. The number of cases in Canada rose by 42 per cent on Monday, 34 per cent on Tuesday and 22 per cent on Wednesday -- but there are so many factors at play that it is impossible to reach any useful conclusions on whether the country is flattening its curve.

Testing activity is ramping up, but not at the

same rate in every province, and not every part of the country is prioritizing the same cases for testing. There’s also inequity in processing backlogs -- and that there are backlogs at all means today’s new cases involve people who first contracted the virus several days ago.

It takes even longer for the effects of closures, movement restrictions and other government actions to show up in the data. Because it is generally believed that the virus has an incubation period of up to two weeks, experts say it is only safe to assume that one day’s case number represents the results of actions taken 14 or more days earlier.

Source: ctvnews.ca

8 C O R ON A First Covid-19 case happened on Nov 17, China government records show - report Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

Earliest case detected on 17 November, weeks before authorities acknowledged new virus, says Chinese media he first case of someone suffering from Covid-19 can be traced back to 17 November, according to

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media reports on unpublished Chinese government data.

The report, in the South China Morning Post, said Chinese authorities had identified at least 266 people who contracted the virus last year and who came under medi-

cal surveillance, and the earliest case was 17 November – weeks before authorities announced the emergence of the new virus.

The Chinese government was widely criticised over attempts to cover up the outbreak in the early weeks, including crackdowns on doctors who tried to warn colleagues about a new Sars-like virus which was emerging in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.

Coronavirus: Wuhan doctor speaks out against authorities The data obtained by the Post, which the Guardian has not been able to verify, said a 55-year-old from Hubei province could have been the first person to contract Covid-19.

For about one month after that date there were one to five new cases reported each day, the report said, and by 20 December there were 60 confirmed cases.

Official statements by the Chinese government to the World Health Organisation

reported that the first confirmed case had been diagnosed on 8 December. Doctors who tried to raise the alarm with colleagues about a new disease in late December were reprimanded.

Authorities did not publicly concede there was human-to-human transmission until 21 January.

It’s widely accepted, including by the head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention that the virus originated in Hubei.

However in recent ​weeks Chinese officials have started suggesting or outright claiming that the virus ​did not ​originate​in China, but perhaps in the US​, a conspiracy theory that is gaining traction​.

On Thursday, Zhao Lijian, a foreign ministry spokesman, suggested without evidence that the US army may have brought it into China.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Symptoms and treatment

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hose who are infected with COVID-19 may have little to no symptoms. You may not know you have symptoms of COVID-19 because they are similar to a cold or flu.

Symptoms may take up to 14 days to appear after exposure to COVID-19. This is the longest known incubation period for this disease. We are currently investigating if the virus can be transmitted to others if someone is not showing symptoms. While experts believe that it is possible, it is considered less common.

Symptoms have included: • fever • cough • difficulty breathing • pneumonia in both lungs In severe cases, infection can lead to death.

Do you think you might have COVID-19?

Use our self-assessment tool to find out what to do.

If you become ill If you are showing symptoms of COVID-19, reduce your contact with others: • isolate yourself at home for 14 days to avoid spreading it to others o. if you live with others, stay in a separate room or keep a 2-metre distance • visit a health care professional or call your local public health authority o. call ahead to tell them your symptoms and follow their instructions If you become sick while travelling back to Canada: • inform the flight attendant or a Canadian border services officer • advise a Canada border services agent on arrival in Canada if you believe you were exposed to someone who was sick with COVID-19, even if you do not have symptoms o. this is required under the Quarantine Act o. the Canada border services agent will provide instructions for you to follow Diagnosing coronavirus Coronavirus infections are diagnosed by a health care provider based on symptoms and are confirmed through laboratory tests.

Treating coronavirus Most people with mild coronavirus illness

will recover on their own.

If you are concerned about your symptoms, you should self-monitor and consult your health care provider. They may recommend steps you can take to relieve symptoms.

Vaccine At this time, there is no vaccine for COVID-19 or any natural health products that are authorized to treat or protect against COVID-19.

If you have received a flu vaccine, it will not protect against coronaviruses.

About coronaviruses Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses.

Some cause illness in people and others cause illness in animals. Human coronaviruses are common and are typically associated with mild illnesses, similar to the common cold.

COVID-19 is a new disease that has not been previously identified in humans. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people, and more rarely, these can then spread from person to person through close contact.

There have been 2 other specific coronaviruses that have spread from animals to humans and which have caused severe illness in humans. These are the: 1. severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS CoV) 2. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS CoV) How coronavirus spreads

Human coronaviruses cause infections of the nose, throat and lungs. They are most commonly spread from an infected person through: • respiratory droplets generated when you cough or sneeze • close, prolonged personal contact, such as touching or shaking hands • touching something with the virus on it, then touching your mouth, nose or eyes before washing your hands Current evidence suggests person-to-person spread is efficient when there is close contact.

Preventing coronavirus At this time, there is no vaccine for COVID-19 or any natural health products that

are authorized to protect against it.

Do you think you might have COVID-19?

Use our self-assessment tool to find out what to do.

If you have travelled outside of Canada Federal and provincial public health leaders have recommended that all travellers from outside of Canada self-isolate for 14 days. These efforts will contribute to slow the introduction and spread of COVID-19 in Canada.

If you have COVID-19, reduce contact with others If you are sick, reduce contact with others by: • staying at home and self-isolating (unless directed to seek medical care) o. if you must leave your home, wear a mask or cover your mouth and nose with tissues, and maintain a 2-metre distance from others • avoiding individuals in hospitals and longterm care centres, especially older adults and those with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems • avoiding having visitors to your home • covering your mouth and nose with your arm when coughing and sneezing • having supplies delivered to your home instead of running errands o supplies should be dropped off outside to ensure a 2-metre distance It is important to know how you can prepare in case you or a family member become ill.

Self-monitor, self-isolate and isolate There is a difference between advice to selfmonitor, advice to self-isolate and advice to isolate. It is important to note these measures are in place to protect the health and safety of Canadians.

Self-monitor Self-isolate Isolate Social distancing Together, we can slow the spread of COVID-19 by making a conscious effort to keep a physical distance between each other. Social distancing is proven to be one of the most effective ways to reduce the spread of illness during an outbreak. With patience and cooperation, we can all do our part.

This means making changes in your everyday routines to minimize close contact with others, including: • avoiding non-essential gatherings • avoiding common greetings, such as handshakes • avoiding crowded places such as concerts, arenas, conferences and festivals • limiting contact with people at higher risk like older adults and those in poor health • keeping a distance of at least 2 arms-length (approximately 2 metres) from others Hygiene

Proper hygiene can help reduce the risk of infection or spreading infection to others: • wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after using the washroom and when preparing food o use alcohol-based hand sanitizer if soap and water are not available • when coughing or sneezing: o cough or sneeze into a tissue or the bend of your arm, not your hand o dispose of any tissues you have used as soon as possible in a lined waste basket and wash your hands afterwards • avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands • use approved disinfectants when cleaning hard high-touch surfaces • clean the following high-touch surfaces frequently with regular household cleaners or diluted bleach (1 part bleach to 9 parts water): o toys o toilets o phones o electronics o door handles o bedside tables o television remotes Wearing masks

If you are a healthy individual, the use of a mask is not recommended for preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Wearing a mask when you are not ill may give a false sense of security. There is a potential risk of infection with improper

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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Symptoms and treatment Continued from page 8

mask use and disposal. They also need to be changed frequently.

However, your health care provider may recommend you wear a mask if you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 while you are seeking or waiting for care. In this instance, masks are an appropriate part of infection prevention and control measures.

The mask acts as a barrier and helps stop the tiny droplets from spreading you when you cough or sneeze.

Risks of getting coronavirus

Canadians are advised to avoid all non-essential travel.

There is an increased risk of more severe outcomes for Canadians: • aged 65 and over • with compromised immune systems • with underlying medical conditions While a COVID-19 outbreak is not unexpected in Canada, our public health system is prepared to respond. The Public Health Agency of Canada, along with provincial, territorial and community partners, continues to reassess the public health risk, based on the best available evidence as the situation evolves.

As well, the risk for COVID-19 may be increased for certain settings such as: • cruise ships • heavily affected areas • international conferences and other large gatherings in enclosed spaces It is important for all travellers to: • self-isolate for 14 days after returning from travel outside of Canada • monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough or difficulty breathing) for 14 days after returning to Canada • wash your hands often for 20 seconds and cough or sneeze into a tissue or the bend of

your arm, not your hand During your trip: If you have even mild symptoms, stay home and call the public health authority in the province or territory you are in to inform them. They will provide advice on what you should do.

We will continue to adapt our risk assessment based on the latest data available.

Pregnant women

Throughout pregnancy, women experience changes in their bodies that may increase the risk of some illnesses, including viral respiratory infections, such as the flu. At this time, there is insufficient evidence to suggest that pregnant women are at a greater risk for more serious outcomes related to COVID-19.

It is always important for pregnant women to protect themselves from illnesses and take the appropriate steps to avoid and prevent infection. Proper hygiene can help reduce the risk of getting an infection or spreading infection to others.

If you are pregnant and concerned about COVID-19, speak to your health care provider.

For workplaces Employers and employees have a role to play in reducing the spread of infection.

Further information on preparing workplaces for COVID-19 (PDF) is available from the World Health Organization.

General advice Hygiene Flexible work arrangements and sick leave Business travel Closure Open chat wizard COVID-19 Virtual Assistant × Date modified: 2020-03-20 If you must travel If you must travel, take precautions against respiratory illnesses, and seek medical attention if you become sick.

• Avoid spending time in large crowds or crowded areas.

• Avoid contact with sick people, especially if they have fever, cough, or difficulty breathing.

• Be aware of the local situation and follow local public health advice.

All travellers are reminded to follow these health precautions: Wash your hands: • Wash your hands often with soap under warm running water for at least 20 seconds.

• Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer only if soap and water are not available. It’s a good idea to always keep some with you when you travel.

Practise proper cough and sneeze etiquette: • Cover your mouth and nose with your arm to reduce the spread of germs.

• If you use a tissue, dispose of it as soon as possible and wash your hands afterwards.

Monitor your health: If you become sick when you are travelling, avoid contact with others except to see a health care professional.

If you feel sick during your flight to Canada or upon arrival, inform the flight attendant or a Canadian border services officer.

If you do not have symptoms but believe you were exposed to someone who was sick with COVID-19, report this information to a Canada border services agent on arrival in Canada. This is required under the Quarantine Act. The Canada border services agent will provide instructions for you to follow.

We have put messaging on arrivals screens at international airports that will help guide travellers to inform a border services officer if they are experiencing flu-like symptoms.

In addition, information on what symptoms to identify and how to contact local health authorities will be provided to arriving travellers.

Avoid all travel on cruise ships The Government of Canada is advising that you avoid all travel on cruise ships due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, until further notice.

Cruise passengers include travellers from around the world who may be arriving from areas with known or unknown spread of COVID-19. The virus can spread quickly on board cruises due to the close contact between passengers. Older people and people with a weakened immune system or underlying medical condition are at a higher risk of developing severe disease.

Recent cruise ship outbreaks of COVID-19 indicate that a large number of individuals onboard can become infected. While the majority of affected passengers may experience mild symptoms, there have been a significant number of cases requiring hospitalization and critical care, and some deaths have been reported.

As the COVID-19 situation evolves, many countries outside of Canada are implementing policies and restrictions in order to contain the global outbreak. These restrictions may impact a cruise traveller’s: • itinerary • ability to disembark • access to health care While abroad, if an outbreak of COVID-19 occurs on your cruise ship: • you could be subject to quarantine procedures, on-board ship or in a foreign country • the range of consular services available to those on cruise ships, in particular in situations of quarantine, may be significantly restricted by local authorities • upon return to Canada, you will be required to remain in mandatory isolation for 14 days at a location determined by the Chief Public Health Officer as per the terms of any applicable emergency orders Although it is not advised, Canadians who choose to voyage on a cruise ship should also be aware that they may not be offered the opportunity to return to Canada on a government-organized repatriation flight, or could be responsible for the costs of repatriation travel.

How to reach the Public Health Agency of Canada British Columbia #301-351 Abbott Street Vancouver, BC V6B 0G6

‘ Hero who told the truth’: Chinese rage over coronavirus death of whistleblower doctor

Demands for freedom of speech in the wake of Li Wenliang’s death have been censored by the authorities amid widespread outpouring of anger The death of a whistleblowing Chinese doctor who was punished for trying to raise the alarm about coronavirus has sparked an explosion of anger, grief and demands for freedom of speech among ordinary Chinese.

Li Wenliang, 34, died in the early hours of Friday local time after he was infected during the fight against the outbreak, said Wu-

han central hospital, where he worked, in a statement.

Cruise operator bans Chinese nationals from its ships – as it happened Read more Li warned colleagues on social media in late December about a mysterious virus that would become the coronavirus epidemic and was detained by police in Wuhan on 3 January for “spreading false rumours”. He was forced to sign a police document to admit he had breached the law and had “seri-

ously disrupted social order.”

“They owe you an apology, we owe you our gratitude. Take care, Dr Li,” said a Weibo post from Xiakedao, an account under the overseas edition of Communist Party’s People’s Daily.

“Good people don’t live long, but evil lives for a thousand years,” said another post mourning Li’s death, with a candle emoji.

An image also posted on Weibo showed a message, “farewell Li Wenliang”, carved into the snow on a riverbank in Beijing.

His death crystallised the outrage and frustration felt across China over the initial cover-up of the deadly virus. On Friday, China’s social media was awash with posts expressing immense anger and grief.

Li’s death became the top-read topic on China’s microblogging site Weibo overnight on Friday, with more than 1.5bn views, and was also heavily discussed in private WeChat messaging groups, where people expressed outrage and sadness.

Even blog posts from state media outlets mourned his death and issued veiled attacks on the Wuhan authorities who censured

him.

The strong public reaction appeared to have drawn the top leadership’s attention. The central commission for discipline inspection, the Communist party’s powerful internal anti-corruption body, and the national supervisory commission, the country’s highest anti-corruption agency, issued a one-sentence statement on their joint website that investigators will be sent to Wuhan to carry out “a comprehensive investigation into the problems reported by the public concerning Doctor Li Wenliang”.

Fearing that the uproar over Li’s death could spill over onto the streets, the authorities quickly deleted posts calling for action. A post forwarded on Wechat but now deleted said: “I hope one day we can stand on the street holding Li Wenliang’s picture.”

In Li’s last blog post on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblog, on 1 February, Li poignantly wrote: “The test results come out positive today. Everything is settled. It is confirmed.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

10

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

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12

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

P o l i t i cs

U.S. troops at the Canadian border? PM says it ‘needs to remain’ unmilitarized

OTTAWA -- After U.S. President Donald Trump’s team floated the idea of placing troops on the Canada-U.S. border, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it is in the U.S. and Canada’s interests to keep the border unmilitarized.

He made the comment after recent discussions between Canada and the U.S., in which Trump’s team was floating the idea of putting U.S. troops within 30 kilometres of the shared border.“Canada and the United States have the longest unmilitarized border in the world, and it is very much in both of our interests for it to remain that way. We have been in discussions with the United States on this,” Trudeau confirmed, speaking from the front steps of Rideau Cottage on Thursday.

He said that Canada has highlighted the benefits of that longstanding border arrangement to both countries and their economies, “and we feel that it needs to remain that way.”

Sources confirmed to CTV News that

Trump’s White House is discussing the possibility of beefing up its military presence at the Canada-U.S. border, with the aim of assisting border guards in their attempts to catch irregular crossers.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland echoed Trudeau’s opposition to the proposal, adding that Canada has clearly communicated that sentiment to U.S. officials.

“Canada is strongly opposed to this U.S. proposal, and we have made that opposition very, very clear to our American counterparts and we will continue to do so,” Freeland said in a press conference on Parliament Hill following Trudeau’s remarks.

“At the end of the day, every country takes its own decisions, but ours is an important valued partnership and we are making very clear Canada’s position.”

Reports indicate that irregular border crossings from Canada to the United States aren’t very common. According to a 2019 report

from NBC News, data released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection showed 963 people were apprehended while crossing illegally from Canada to the United States in 2018. However, that was an uptick from 2017, when 504 people were apprehended illegally crossing the border into the U.S. from Canada. Meanwhile, Canada faces a much higher rate of irregular border crossings from the United States. According to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, from February to December 2017, Canada received 18,059 refugee claims from irregular border crossers.

In 2018, that number rose to 20,603. While the border remains unmilitarized, Canada has tightened regulations to cut down on travel between the two countries. Only essential travel is permitted, such as the transportation of goods or travel for work. “We

will continue to work with the United States to ensure that the border measures we put in place are respected. We have closed the border temporarily to all but… essential travellers,” Trudeau said. “We will continue to adjust as things unfold, as necessary. But we will be continuing to follow the best advice of the scientific community on doing what is necessary to keep Canadians safe, as a priority.”

Source: ctvnews.ca

Ottawa, ON – The Honourable Andrew Scheer, Leader of Canada’s Conservatives and of the Official Opposition, issued the following statement: “Since the beginning of this crisis, Conservatives have been focused on Canadians and getting them the support they desperately need. We recognize that these are unprecedented times and that urgent action is needed. Almost a million Canadians have already been laid off, stores and restaurants have been told to close their doors, and Ca-

nadians have been told to stay at home. We also know that this crisis has hit our economy hard and that the months to come will be difficult.

“That is why Conservatives have been flexible in our approach, while also continuing to ensure government oversight.

“When we agreed to the extraordinary suspension of Parliament, Conservatives insisted that the government be subject to substantial accountability measures including that the Auditor General would audit any new spending, that parliamentary committees would be able to review all of that spending when Parliament resumes, that parliamentary committees could be recalled at any time, and that the government must immediately inform the Opposition of any spending and make it public within seven days.

“We also agreed to bring back the House of Commons this week with only a small number of Members present. We were prepared to quickly pass the measures that the Prime Minister had announced to date. What we were not prepared for was the government’s

attempted undemocratic power grab.

“The Liberals shamefully tried to use a public health crisis to give themselves the powers to raise taxes, debt and spending without parliamentary approval until January 1, 2022. But after hours of negotiation, the government has backed down.

“Conservatives have secured the following concessions: • We demanded that the government remove the section that would have allowed them to raise taxes without parliamentary approval.

They agreed.

• We demanded that the government walk back their unlimited spending powers and that special warrants expire on June 23, 2020 instead of September 30, 2020. They agreed.

• We demanded that the government include explicit reference to putting taxpayers’ rights first. They agreed.

• We demanded that the government put sunset clauses in their legislation.

They agreed.

• We demanded that the government be accountable to Parliament through regular re-

ports to the House of Commons Health and Finance committees and that the Finance Committee have the right to recall Parliament if we identify any abuses. They agreed.

“Our effective Opposition has also gotten the government to reverse course on other policies.

“Conservatives called for stronger action to protect our borders and the government responded. We asked about the impact of the border closure on the temporary foreign worker and seasonal agricultural worker programs and the government made exemptions. We called on the government to stop the flow of illegal border crossers into Canada, particularly at Roxham Road, and the government listened.

“We will continue to use all of the tools available to us to hold the government to account. And we will continue to use our strengthened Opposition to ask tough questions on behalf of Canadians and put forward constructive solutions to ensure that no one falls through the cracks.”

By: Denise Siele

VICTORIA -- The B.C. government has imposed a moratorium on residential evictions and will provide renters with up to $500 per month for the next four months to meet rent payments. Premier John Horgan announced the protective measures Wednesday amid the ongoing financial crunch of the novel coronavirus pandemic.“B.C. is suspending current and future evictions until this crisis has passed,” Horgan told reporters in Victoria. He said the rental rebates will be available April 1 and will be paid directly to landlords through BC Housing. The premier also announced a province-wide freeze on rental increases for the estimated 500,000 renters in the province.“We’re helping renters pay rent and giving them the peace of mind that they have a stable home in these unprecedented times, and ensuring that landlords can count on some rental income right now to keep

them afloat too,” said Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Selina Robinson.

The COVID-19 outbreak has left thousands of British Columbians without work or with reduced hours and wages.

The government-ordered closure of businesses, including bars, restaurants and other service industry employers, has left many workers without money to pay their rent. Still more businesses, including large employers in the tourism sector, have laid off thousands due to reduced demand for services. That has had a knock-on effect for landlords who are suddenly struggling to make mortgage payments with reduced rental incomes. Rental property-owner association LandlordBC had asked the province not to impose a moratorium on evictions in the province, saying the move could have “huge unintended consequences and

put the entire rental housing ecosystem at risk.” The industry group instead encouraged landlords and property managers to delay any planned rent increases.

The new measures announced Wednesday also include provisions for landlords to restrict tenant and guest access to common areas to protect against COVID-19 transmission. Horgan said he is aware of the challenges faced by landlords at this time, saying the rental rebate will ensure property owners “continue to see some revenue coming in.”

The B.C. government previously announced one-time payments of $1,000 for British Columbians whose work has been affected by the spread of COVID-19, either because of direct loss of employment or the need to care for a loved one at home.

“Homes should be a place of comfort and security,” Horgan said. “We don’t want people

to think that they may lose that home as a result of this pandemic.”

Under the new rules, landlords will still be able to apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch to evict renters in extreme cases where there are health and safety concerns.

Source: vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca

In these anxious times, it can be hard to find the light in the darkness.

I want to reassure the citizens of Surrey that all is not bleak and that I believe that each of us can stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The virus began in a single person in China and has multiplied because it is able to latch on to new carriers. The unprecedented measures that have been put in place has been done with the express purpose to stem and stop the spread of the virus.

We all understand how high the stakes

are and that’s why it is imperative that we have the self-discipline to follow this fight through. The orders and measures, such as practicing social distancing and not gathering in large groups, are only effective if we collectively put them into practice.

As we have seen, there is a real human and economic toll to pay if we do not step up to stop the virus, but we can fight the spread by taking the precautions that have been laid out. This battle is for the health of our communities, our neighborhoods, our older

Liberals Back Down from Power Grab

B.C. imposes moratorium on evictions, offers $500 a month for renters

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update from Mayor Doug McCallum

population that is the most vulnerable, our loved ones, our families and our individual self. We all possess the power to fight COVID-19 by making sure we are not an easy target for the virus to latch on to. By taking responsibility of our actions and by taking care of ourselves, we are taking care of one another and our community as a whole.

COVID-19 can and will be stopped, and the fight begins and ends with each of us.

Mayor Doug McCallum City of Surrey

13

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

special

Saudi Arabia bans prayers at mosques over coronavirus fears ing inside the mosque in Mecca. On Thurs-

Move will also include weekly Friday prayers in a country that has reported more than 270 coronavirus cases.

20 Mar 2020

S

audi Arabia has suspended the holding of daily prayers and the weekly Friday prayers inside and outside the walls of the two mosques in Mecca and Medina to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Earlier, on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia had suspended congregational prayers in other mosques in the country except Masjid alHaram and Masjid an-Nabawi, in Mecca and Medina respectively.

Authorities had placed restrictions on pray-

day, the government suspended prayers outside the two holy mosques.

“The Presidency and the security and health authorities decided to suspend the presence and prayers in the outer squares of the Grand Mosque [Masjid al-Haram] and the Prophet’s Mosque [Masjid al-Nabawi] starting tomorrow, Friday,” the country’s official SPA news agency quoted Hani bin Hosni Haider, a spokesman for the General Presidency of Mecca’s Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, as saying.

Saudi Arabia recorded 36 new infections on Thursday, bringing its total to 274 with no

deaths so far.

It has taken drastic measures already. In addition to closing mosques, it has halted international flights, suspended the Umrah year-round pilgrimage to Mecca, shut down schools, malls and restaurants, and asked people to stop going to work.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman said the kingdom will take measures to curb its spread and urged citizens to work together to confront the pandemic.

“We are living through a difficult period in

the history of the world, but we are fully aware that it will pass despite its cruelty, bitterness and difficulty,” the 84-year-old monarch said on Thursday in a five-minute televised address.

Amid volatility in regional markets and plunging oil prices, the world’s top crude exporter has prepared a 50 billion riyal ($13bn) package to help small and mediumsized enterprises cope, and has cut its state budget by nearly five percent.

Source: www.aljazeera.com/news

If Trump can’t demonstrate that he takes so- Again, health safety is paramount and demcial distancing seriously at a press conference onstrated as such. about Covid-19, does he really expect any- Italy one else in the US population to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance?

Hong Kong

tion required to leave the house. When people do leave, mayors can be seen shouting at them, calling them idiots and threatening them with flamethrowers. And look, here the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, can be seen holding a press conference enacting appropriate physical distancing measures.

How Donald Trump practices physical distancing versus other world leaders And finally, the US

Here are pictures of Trump’s many press conferences, during which the mandatory physical distancing protocol is not followed.

Official stand near each other at a press conference on 13 March.

Pakistan

A press conference in Rome, Italy where the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, announced extending coronavirus quarantine measures.

A press conference on 23 March.

Italy has been one of countries worst hit by Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, Covid-19, with the highest death rate in the holds a news conference on 21 March. world. But Italians are at least now under PM Imran ready to get input of parties to Here, the Hong Kong government attend a state-mandated quarantine, with certifica- fight Covid-19, March 25 Covid-19 conference wearing face masks.

Bill Gates: If I wereit waspresident, this is what I would do now to fight coronavirus like six weeks, so we have to prepare has significant experience combating infec- es for the spread of the pandemic.

If Bill Gates were President of the United States right now, he would prioritize keeping people across America in isolation to “flatten the curve” of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The clear message [would be] that we have no choice to maintain this isolation and that’s going to keep going for a period of time,” Bill Gates told TED curator Chris Anderson on Tuesday. “In the Chinese case,

ourselves for that and do it very well.”

According to Gates, “If you’re doing isolation well [nationally], within about 20 days you’ll see those numbers [of new cases] really change,” i.e., go down, ”…and that is a sign that you’re on your way.” As president, Gates would also emphasize, “This is not going to be easy. We need a clear message about that,” he said.

Currently, at least 179 million people in 18 states, 31 counties and 13 cities are being urged to stay home, according to a running tally by the New York Times.

According to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, the number of new cases in the United States has still been trending higher. By comparison, “the curve” has generally flattened in China and South Korea, as the chart, below, shows. n his role as the co-founder of his namesake Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates

New cases, critical condition, and recovered by Country

tious diseases including malaria, HIV and polio. Gates’ comments come as President Donald Trump announced he would like businesses in America to reopen by Easter, which is April 12.“America will again, and soon, be open for business — very soon — a lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting,” Trump said in a press briefing on Monday. “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. ...

We can do two things at one time.” He reiterated his position on Tuesday for a Fox News virtual town hall.

“You can’t just come in and say let’s close up the United States of America, the biggest, the most successful country in the world by far,” he said, suggesting that a massive recession would also cost lives.

Medical experts, on the other hand, say it is too soon, that reopening businesses and schools could have detrimental consequenc-

Country

1: Italy Few Countries where COVID-19 has spread: 2: China 199 Countries and Territories around the world have reported 3: Iran a total of 532,263 confirmed cases of the coronavirus 4: Spain COVID-19 that originated from Wuhan, China, and a death 5: France toll of 24,090 deaths. Last updated: March 27, 2020, 04:36 GMT 6: US

Cases 80,589 81,340 29,406 57,786 29,155 85,594

Deaths 8,215 3,292 2,234 4,365 1,696 1,300

“Obviously Trump is not rooted in reality,” Dr. Tina Tan, a board member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a staff member at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, told CNBC. Gates also emphasizes that it is important to prioritize the toll on human health over money.

“It is really tragic that the economic effects of this are very dramatic. Nothing like this has ever happened to the economy in our lifetimes,” Gates said. “But money, you know bringing the economy back and doing money, that’s more of a reversible thing than bringing people back to life. And so we’re going to take the pain in the economic dimension — huge pain — in order to minimize the pain in the disease and death dimension.” Source www.cnbc.com

News Cases Source: .worldometers.info

Country

7: United K 8: Germany 9:Switzerland 10: South K. 11: Canada 12: Pakistan

Cases

Deaths

4,043 1,201

267 192 139 39 9

11,658 43,938 11,811 9,332

578

14

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

MIDDLE

EAST

Istanbul prosecutor indicts Saudi suspects for Khashoggi killing Former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s general believed MBS ordered the killing - an accu- consulate, witness statements and analysis intelligence and former royal court adviser also accused in indictment.

The Istanbul prosecutor’s office said it had prepared an indictment against 20 suspects over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, including the former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s general intelligence and a former royal adviser.

Khashoggi’s killing in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 caused a global uproar, tarnishing the image of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). Some Western governments, as well as the CIA, said they

sation Saudi officials have denied.

The prosecutor’s office said the indictment accuses the former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s general intelligence, Ahmed al-Asiri, and the former royal court adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, of having “instigated premeditated murder with monstrous intent”.

It accuses 18 others of carrying out the killing of Khashoggi, a US resident and columnist for the Washington Post, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The indictment was based on analysis of mobile phone records of the suspects, records of their entry and exit into Turkey and presence at the

of Khashoggi’s phone, laptop and iPad, the statement said. Saudi Arabia’s media ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In December, a Saudi court sentenced five people to death and three to jail over Khashoggi’s murder. But a Saudi prosecutor said there was no evidence connecting al-Qahtani to the killing and the court dismissed the charges against al-Asiri.

Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said no one in Turkey has any idea on why this indictment was announced and a public case opened given the coronavirus pandemic. Source: aljazeera.com

Islamic Republic alleges French medical charity MSF staff would serve as ‘spies’ if deployed on the ground in Iran.

Iran ruled out “foreign” help on the ground to deal with the coronavirus pandemic after an offer from a France-based medical charity, as the country’s death toll from the contagion neared 2,000.

“Due to Iran’s national mobilisation against the virus and the full use of the medical capacity of the armed forces, it is not necessary for now for hospital beds to be set up by foreign forces, and their presence is ruled out,” Alireza Vahabzadeh, adviser to Iran’s health minister, said on Tuesday.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Sunday it planned to send a nine-member team and equipment to set up a 50-bed hospital, stirring opposition from ultra-conservative circles in the Islamic Republic who alleged MSF staff would serve as “spies”.

Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour earlier said a record 1,762 new cases were confirmed in Iran over the past 24 hours with 24,811 people infected.

He announced 122 new deaths from the virus, raising the official toll to 1,934 in one of the world’s worst-hit countries.

MSF said on Tuesday it did not understand a decision by Iranian authorities to cancel a

mission it had prearranged to set up a facility to fight coronavirus in Isfahan.

“We are surprised to learn that the deployment of our treatment unity is cancelled,” Michel-Olivier Lacharite, who is in charge of Medecins Sans Frontieres crisis response team, said in a statement.

He said the group had been given prior approval and were ready to set up the 50-bed unit at the end of the week. He said they were still ready to deploy on Iran or elsewhere on the region.

Source: aljazeera.com

of the coronavirus.”

Nevertheless, U.S. sanctions on Iran, which have had a devastating impact on the economy, have made things much worse. The government has been forced to request an emergency $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund while Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has written to several world leaders to tell them how his country’s fight against the coronavirus has been “severely hampered by US sanctions.” His foreign minister Javad Zarif accused the U.S. government of “medical terrorism.”

The Trump administration — in the form of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin — continues to insist that sanctions do not prevent humanitarian aid. This is, technically, correct. Yet as Human Rights Watch pointed out in October 2019, months before the novel coronavirus outbreak in Iran, “while the US government has built exemptions for humanitarian imports into its sanctions regime … in practice these exemptions have failed to offset the strong reluctance of US and European companies and banks to risk incurring sanctions and legal action by exporting or financing exempted humanitarian goods.” The result, concluded the human rights group, “has been to deny Iranians access to essential medicines and to impair their right to health.” In fact, as the Atlantic Council noted in May 2019, “despite the fact that sanctions exempted humanitarian goods, the US Treasury Department had previously prosecuted medical companies for selling small amounts of medical supplies to Iran, which in turn, has had a deterring effect on other companies doing busi-

ness with Tehran.”

So it is any surprise, then, that Iranian suppliers of respiratory masks, surgical gowns, and ventilators are now saying they are out of stock? Or that the Iranian government is struggling to import the raw materials that it needs to manufacture antiviral drugs?

In late February, the Trump administration made a minor adjustment to the sanctions regime and allowed some humanitarian aid to arrive in Iran in coordination with the Swiss government. Sanctions relief, however, needs to go much further and much faster. As Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the few progressive foreign policy voices on Capitol Hill, tweeted last week: “We need to suspend these sanctions before more lives are lost.”

She’s right. And there is precedent here: When a massive earthquake killed 26,000 people in the city of Bam, in southeastern Iran, in December 2003, the Bush administration allowed for a temporary suspension of sanctions. As journalist Negar Mortazavi has recounted, “multiple U.S. military planes landed in Iran for the first time since the 1979 revolution” and “transferred over 150,000 pounds of medical supplies and more than 200 civilian personnel from Boston, Los Angeles, and Fairfax County in Virginia, to assist Iran in search and rescue, emergency surgery, and disaster response coordination.”

Yet the Trump administration has refused to budge. Imagine being both so cruel and so unreasonable that you make George W. Bush and Dick Cheney look compassionate and reasonable in comparison. On Monday, the Chinese and Russian governments demanded the U.S. suspend sanctions on Iran as a result of the pandemic. The Chinese foreign ministry called on the U.S. to “immediately lift unilateral” sanctions on the Islamic Republic, which it described as undermining the “delivery of humanitarian aid by the UN and other organizations.” Referring to “illegal” and “anti-human” U.S. sanctions, the Russian government accused Washington of “purposefully” cutting off millions of Iranian citizens “from the possibility of purchasing necessary medical supplies.”

Yet, again, the Trump administration has refused to budge. Imagine being both so cruel and so out of step with the international

community that the Chinese and Russian governments have the moral high ground over you.

The unilateral reimposition of U.S. sanctions on Iran in 2018 was a clear violation of international law, according to the International Court of Justice. It was not mandated by the U.N. Security Council, and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the effect of sanctions on human rights has since slammed the Trump administration’s “illegal and immoral forms of coercion,” calling it an “economic attack” on the Iranian people.

Of course, an attack on the Islamic Republic is what the hawks in Washington have always craved. On Sunday, Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton was once again agitating for a new war with Iran. Meanwhile, Bolton’s former colleagues over at the neoconservative pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran, as Eli Clifton revealed, have been “urging major pharmaceutical companies to ‘end their Iran business,’ focusing on companies with special licenses — most often under a broadly defined ‘humanitarian exemption’ — to conduct trade with Iran.”

There is only one word to describe such behavior: sociopathic. Millions of Iranians, remember, could lose their lives from the virus.

But we have been here before. Brutal U.S. sanctions on Iraq in the 1990s caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi children. Multiple senior U.N. humanitarian officials quit in protest of the policy, with one of them denouncing it as “genocide.”

And the U.S. government’s response? “We think the price is worth it,” declared then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

As ordinary Americans line up at grocery stores and pharmacies across the United States to stock up on prescription medications, do they have any clue that their Iranian counterparts are being denied medicines and basic goods because of U.S. government policy? And as the number of deaths in Iran from Covid-19 continues to soar, exacerbated by a horrific U.S. economic embargo, do ordinary Americans think the price is worth it?

Source: theintercept.com

Iran rejects ‘foreign’ help as virus death toll nears 2,000

The Coronavirus Is Killing Iranians. So Are Trump’s Brutal Sanctions.

By: Mehdi Hasan

The U.S. government is run by sociopaths.

H

ow else to explain the Trump administration’s callous disregard for the lives of ordinary Iranians in the midst of this global coronavirus crisis? How else to make sense of U.S. officials doubling down in their support for crippling economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic, despite the sheer scale of the suffering?

The spread of Covid-19 has been nothing less than a catastrophe for the people of Iran.

On Monday, Iranian officials reported another 129 fatalities, “the largest one-day rise in deaths since it began battling the Middle East’s worst outbreak.” Dozens of Iranian government officials, parliamentarians, and religious leaders have lost their lives to the disease. The death toll now stands at 988, and the total number of cases has crossed 16,000 — roughly, nine out of every 10 cases in the Middle East! Globally, only China and South Korea have had more confirmed cases and yet, as the AP notes, the real number in Iran “may be even higher.”

To be clear: A lot of the responsibility for the death and suffering in Iran has to lie with the Iranian government, which has been grotesquely incompetent and deeply dishonest.

“The official response was glaring denial of the magnitude of the crisis,” wrote Iranian doctors (and exiles) Kamiar and Arash Alaei in the New York Times earlier this month.

The country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, they noted, even “accused the country’s enemies of exaggerating the threat

15 india BJP, Biryani and a dark secret Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

Churlishness against biryani shows how tional atmosphere which was taking shape in Hindutva is a majority nationalism with a favour of Kasab during the trial of the case”. minority complex.

Muslimness and Indianess By: Shoaib Daniyal This sort of dog whistling is easy to explain. he final step of a biryani involves Biryani is a dish most often associated with dum. Meat and rice are layered in- South Asia’s Muslims. In fact, quite remarkaside a thick degh, its cover sealed bly, almost every Muslim community across with dough and cooked on a low flame. It’s India has its own biryani. The Thalassery a magical process that steeps the rice – and of Malabar’s Moplahs, the Hyderabadi of remember, at its heart, the biryani is a rice Daknis, the Memoni biryani of the Memons dish – in the flavours of meat, masala and of Gujarat, the Awadhi of Lucknow or the aromatics. tubered Kolkata biryani of Urdu-speaking It would be an odd person who would not Calcatians – you throw a stone in a Muslim appreciate such culinary artistry. Yet, these neighbourhood and chances are, it’ll clang are odd times. “Biryani” has become a slur, off a degh. dog whistle and political weapon in the However, what makes things more complibruising electoral battle for the Delhi as- cated – and interesting – is that biryani has sembly. As part of its campaign to attack the transcended its origins within Muslim comprotests against the National Register of Cit- munities to become something of a national izens, the Bharatiya Janata Party has sunk to dish. The biryani was, for example, the most a horrifying low: it has demonised biryani. ordered meal on India’s largest food delivery The BJP has repeatedly made the allega- app, Swiggy, three years in a row. Every mintion that the Aam Aadmi Party government ute, India orders 95 biryanis from just this was serving up biryani to the protestors at one food delivery app. Biryani is also the Shaheen Bagh, the site of the agitation in first dish that comes to mind when outsiders Delhi against the Citizenship Amendment think of Indian food: one study found that Act that has lasted more than 50 days. On biryani was the most searched Indian food Wednesday, Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s globally on the Internet.

IT cell excitedly tweeted out, “Proof of Biry- So appealing is biryani that now there are ani being distributed at Shaheen Bagh!”. It even vegetarian dishes are being christened was as if people having a biryani lunch were with that name, although traditionally biryanis have been made with meat and poultry. a dark secret to be exposed to the world.

This has happened before. In 2015, Ujjwal Fittingly enough, in 2014, former Indian Nikam, the public prosecutor in the 26/11 cricket captain MS Dhoni shifted hotels in Mumbai terror-attack case, admitted he had Hyderabad since it wouldn’t allow him to cooked up the story of terrorist Ajmal Kasab bring in a biryani from outside – a suitably demanding and being served biryani by the drastic decision given the insult to a great jail authorities during his trial. Nikam told food item. this lie, he said, in order to “break an emo- Given the mass popularity of biryani in In-

T

dia, the BJP’s attempts to tar the protests with Tamils. the dish are decidedly odd. How can such a Hindu nationalists in India similarly base dish so loved be used to discredit anyone? their politics on the fear of Muslims – although only one out of every seventh Indian Minority complex To understand how the BJP can find offense is Muslim. Most famously, this has birthed in biryani, one must take a look at the par- the BJP’s main plank of “minority appeasety’s ruling ideology: Hindu nationalism or ment” – where the party ignores socioecoHindutva. As political scientist Christophe nomic data to argue that India’s Muslim Jaffrelot has argued, “The Hindu nationalist minority enjoys outsized benefits from the culture of outrage cannot be understood ir- Indian state. respective of its psychological context. It is Many other ideologies would have felt pride part of a discourse of victimizationwhich is with the popular status biryani enjoys. In some other cases, powerful communities ofthe very matrix of Hindu nationalism”.

This goes back right to Hindutva’s origins, ten appropriate culture from the less power150 years back. “This ideology was shaped ful: a famous example being Israel, consistin the late 19th century as a reaction to a ing mostly of European-origin Jews, staking strong feeling of vulnerability,” Jaffrelot ar- a claim to Arab-origin cuisine such as humgues. “Hindus, though in a majority, were mus. Hindu nationalism, though, has a difseen by its proponents as weak, compared ferent reaction, feeling a sense of outrage to the Muslims, because of their inner divi- and victimisation that a dish seen in popular culture as “Muslim” enjoys the superstar stasions along caste and sectarian lines.”

Hindutava, then, fits the famous description tus it does amongst all Indians. of Stanley Tambiah, a Harvard anthropolo- This article was originally published in Scroll. gist, who had described the Sinhalese as a In and has been reproduced with permission “majority with a minority complex” – fear- Source: www.dawn.com ing domination by Sri Lanka’s minority

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16

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

kashm i r

Sanitizing Modi’s Hindutvadi Fascism is Impious!

BY: HABIB SIDDIQUI On March 4, 2020, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) convened a hearing about the intent and impact of India’s amended Citizenship laws and the Rohingya Muslims’ issue in Myanmar, to help develop policy recommendations for the US government in response to the issues. Members of the commission along with an invited panel of experts expressed concern over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying that it could result in the “wide-scale disenfranchisement” of Muslims in the country.

The new Indian citizenship law passed by the Hindutvadi-dominated parliament in December 2019, offers citizenship to nonMuslim religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan but not to Muslims. After the enactment of the law, protests erupted across the country over fears that the CAA may marginalize the minority Muslim community.

Hindu American Foundation (HAF), one of the leading Hindu body in America, has accused the USCIRF of conducting hearings that perpetuate misinformation about the intent and impact of India’s amended Citizenship laws. Such accusations of the HAF are simply ludicrous!

The Foundation is long known for promoting Narendra Modi’s Hindutvadi agenda amongst the Indian Americans, and has been alleged by its critics of raising saffron dollars that promote bigotry and intolerance - mildly claimed to be Hindu nationalism - all across India, which has, sadly, made Gandhi-Azad-Nehru’s India unsafe for the non-Hindus. As a matter of fact, thanks to Modi, as rightly stated by Shashi Tharoor, it’s safer to be a cow than a Muslim in India.

Where are the human rights of Muslims of India whose forefathers believed in the promises made by its founding fathers?

What we witness, instead, is that Muslims are being killed for just appearing to be Muslim not only by the Hindutvadi mobs, but also by the very police who are supposed to protect and come to the rescue of the victims of hatred. As we had witnessed nearly two decades ago during the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat when Modi was the chief minister of that state, in recent weeks once again the Indian police had been a party to the crime by participating in such pogroms against Muslims.

One may recall that on February 27, 2002, within hours of the Godhra incident, Modi declared that the Pakistani secret services were to blame; he then had the charred bodies paraded in the main city of Ahmedabad; and let his own party (BJP) support a statewide strike for three days. What followed was mass bloodshed: 1,000 dead on official estimates, more than 2,000 by independent tallies. The vast majority of those who died were Muslim. Mobs of men dragged women and young girls out of their homes and raped them. In 2007, the investigative magazine Tehelka recorded boasts from some of the ringleaders. One, Babu Bajrangi, boasted of how he slit open the womb of a pregnant woman. As noted by the investigative journalist, Rana Ayyub, author of the book - Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up, such was the intensity of the crime against Muslims in 2002, that the Supreme Court of In-

dia called the Modi government in Gujarat “Modern day Neros who looked the other way while young women and children were burnt alive.”

There is a name for such crimes - it’s not communal riot; it’s called pogrom. The latest pogrom in Delhi once again demonstrated that a peaceful protest by progressive Indians against the ruling BJP government’s highly discriminatory and criminally intended Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), was not tolerated by the BJP and the RSS hoodlums.

Prime Minister Modi himself fired the first bullet with his trademark toxic innuendo.

At an election rally, he said the anti CAAprotesters could easily be “identified by their clothes”—implying that they were all Muslim. This was untrue since many nonHindus had participated against the CAA. But Modi’s statement gave the license to Hindutvadi fascists to mark off the population that must be punished and killed. Not surprisingly, several mosques were burned including the Qur’an, Muslim women raped, Muslim owned homes and properties burned, and more than 40 Muslims lynched to death.

Home Minister Amit Shah delivered the most communal speeches during the recently concluded Delhi elections in which the BJP lost to the Aam Aadmi Party. He asked the voters to press the voting button with such anger that the (Muslim) protestors at Shaheen Bagh felt the current.

Two days before the latest pogrom began in Delhi, Giriraj Singh, Minister for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet said, Muslims should have been sent to Pakistan in 1947 during the partition of India. Shortly after that inflammatory speech, another legislator from Modi’s BJP, Kapil Mishra, made a provocative speech in New Delhi standing next to a high-ranking police official, in which he condemned the Shaheen Bagh protestors demonstrating against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Bill that threatens the existence of the 200 million strong Muslim population in India. Either the cops must clear them out, he said, or ‘we will take things into our own hands.’

Within hours, Hindu mobs, some carrying saffron flags, vandalized mosques and set fire to properties belonging to Muslims. As reported in the Time magazine, in one such incident, an 85-year-old woman was burned alive while the mob outside chanted Jai Shri Ram, a Hindu devotional that has become a racist dog whistle against Muslims. Videos of police breaking CCTV cameras and taunting prone and bleeding Muslim men while filming them with their smartphones circulated on social media.

What has Modi and his fascist Hindutvadi government done to allay the fears of the minorities? Nothing. His fascist agenda has been at the heart of the problem and not the solution. Not too long ago, he himself gave the most incendiary speech mocking riot victims, calling relief camps set up for Muslims, child producing factories.

So, when such news of anti-Muslim pogroms are widely documented and confirmed by unbiased, investigative journalists, it’s not misinformation but the attempt to call it as

such. To cover the heinous crimes of Hindutvadi fascists is repugnant. Obviously, HAF is trying to distort the truth and whitewash the crimes of the fascist Modi government.

We should not be surprised by such impious and ignoble attempts by the HAF. It is worth noting that in September 2019, the HAF published a letter, co-signed by what was described as “a record number of 230 Indian-American organizations in the US,” asking congressman Ro Khanna to withdraw from the Congressional Caucus on Pakistan and criticizing him for a tweet where he had stated that “it is the duty of every American politician of Hindu faith to stand for pluralism, reject Hindutva, and speak for equal rights for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist and Christians.”

Shame on the HAF for supporting fascism and its new ‘avatar’ - Modi!

We thought that Modi, the Butcher of Gujarat, would repent and mend his ways evolving into a real human being, esp. since he was elected the prime minister of India. But an old fascist never repents, neither learns nor does anything good for the ‘other’ people. Modi continues to prove the old maxim.

His first term in office witnessed Muslims being lynched to death under the pretext of preserving the cow while the Hindutvadi murderers walked free.

The second election win has simply emboldened Modi to repeat the Gujarat experiment in a much larger scale, affecting the Muslim minority that comprise 15 percent of India’s population. Muslims are more threatened than ever before in India’s checkered history of state-sponsored hatred, intolerance and communalism.

Modi’s repeat victory in India, once wrongly touted as the largest democracy and model of secularism, proves that Hindutva has become the new face of India, enjoying popular support. [The ugly facts, to paraphrase Arundhati Roy, are: India has neither been a democratic nor a secular state.]

The CAA, much like the highly discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law of Burma that erased the citizenship rights of millions of the Rohingya people, provides the necessary backdrop for justifying anti-Muslim violence in India. Such fascist Acts enacted at the highest citadel of power, are exploited by criminal regimes to sanction pogroms that turns into genocide as part of a national agenda, to eliminate the targeted minority.

The tell-tale signs of genocide are all there in Modi’s India for anyone serious to see its all-too-apparent symptoms and stop this menace before morphing into an eliminationist project, something that is faced by the Rohingyas of Myanmar.

The HAF propagandists should know that they cannot sanitize India’s Hindutvadi blood-stained image by condoning hate crimes and pogroms against minority Muslims. As aptly put by Shashi Tharoor in his 2015 Lok Sabha speech, India cannot sell itself to the world as a “land of pluralism, tolerance, and Gandhianism while encour-

BY: ASLAM ABDULLAH

ting Hindu votes.

Biden campaign may have miscalculated its appeasement of Hindu nationalists. Modi has already endorsed Trump. In Houston, in front of the world in the public rally in August 2019, Modi had declared, “Four more years to Trump.” No matter how many Hindu nationalists Biden or any Democratic candidate appoint, Hindu American supporters of Modi and his organization, the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS), would not back him. The RSS is a fascist organization that believes in the supremacy of

aging intolerance, communal hatred and minority insecurity within the country.”

As surviving victims would tell us, there is nothing worse than the terror generated when a government openly turns on a section of its own population with all the power at its disposal. Just imagine the impact when the state pretends to be a democracy, where people choose their elected reps in open elections. It’s simply worse and traumatic that is not easy for anyone outside the targeted community to either believe or comprehend!

Rana Ayyub, a survivor of the Bombay riots of 1992, was only a nine-year old child when Modi’s party BJP was in power there.

She writes in the Time Magazine (Feb. 28, 2020), “I was nine, a cripple, when Hindu nationalists came home with swords to select me and my sister for gang rape. We survived when our Sikh neighbor came to our rescue. For decades I have been under treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and a part of various groups to help heal my manic periods of anxiety. Almost once every month, the nightmare revisits me when I wake up sweating after a night long of trauma when I reimagine men with swords at my doorstep. But I am a privileged Muslim from an upper middle-class family, with access to therapists and the best medical facilities. Those killed and injured in Delhi come from the lower socio-economic strata where therapy and psychological care is a luxury they cannot afford.”

There will be no closure for surviving victims in India as long as fascists and mass murderers like Modi rules. Shame on India for re-electing such a butcher and calling it a democracy!

Rather than trying to defend the indefensible acts of the BJP government and its highly discriminatory policies that give license to kill minorities (like the Muslims), the organizations like the HAF should promote pluralism not just in Trump’s America but also in India where hundreds of millions of non-Hindus (Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Dalits and animists) are facing the brunt of state-sponsored pogroms in the hands of Hindutvadi fascists. The tens of millions of U.S. dollars that they collect under the pretext of India Relief Development Fund should not be spent for supporting a pernicious ideology like the Hindutva, which is the reincarnated version of Nazism and Fascism. The sooner the better for all humanity!

Source: www.islamicity.org

Biden Campaign and Hindu Fascists Joe Biden, aspiring to be the Democratic Presidential nominee, had appointed Amit Jani, a Hindu nationalist and the supporter of India’s Prime Minister, accused of masterminding the Gujarat massacre of Muslims in 2002. However, the voters in large numbers objected to his decision, and on March 9, 2020, the Biden campaign nominated Farooq A. Mitha as the Muslim outreach coordinator. Biden, however, did not remove Jani. Why? Like a real politician, Biden wants to play safe and court Modi for get-

Hindu upper castes and wants to turn the secular and plural constitution of India into a Hindu nation with no equal rights to people of non-Indian faiths such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Amit Jani has close ties with RSS and its counterparts in the U.S. The other reason could be the influence of RSS supporters in his own state Delaware, where Hindus are the second-largest religious group after Christianity. Between 2000 and 2010, Hindus saw 116 percent growth in Delaware.

Source: www.islamicity.org

17

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

LOCAL

AICP Annual celebration of Isra’ & Mi^raj-un-Nabiyy, peace be upon him, in British Columbia.

By: Imad Nouri , New West Surrey, British Columbia – March 8, aturally, Muslims observe the miracle of Isra’ & Mi^raj; one of the greatest miracles Allah ta^ala granted our Master Muhammad, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, and blessed his nation with. As part of the Islamic community, the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects proudly commemorated this great miracle with a joyous celebration at Surrey Arts Centre on Sunday, March 8th under the banner of “Assembly of the Prophets”.

The event was well attended consisting of a large crowd (341 attendees) from the Muslim community of Greater Vancouver. The event commenced with a heart moving recitation from the Holy Qur’an (Tilawat-ulQur’an) followed by captivating and heartwarming Islamic chants performed by the one of a kind AICP Chanting Group, who thanked Allah, ta^ala, praised the Prophet, peace be upon him, the kind Al, the Companions, and the pious awliya’.

With such a glorious occasion and in the presence of such a diverse crowd it was necessary to emphasize on the purpose of this miracle. Shaykh ^Abdur-Rahman, the Imam of Masjid Ahulus-Sunnah wal Jama^ah in New Westminster, made it clear that Allah granted His Messenger this great miracle to honor him sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam by showing him the wonders of the upper world. This is stated clearly in The Glorious Qur’an in Surat al-Isra’, Verse 1 that means “To show him of Our wonders”. The belief of the Muslims worldwide is that Allah, the Creator of all places, exists without any place. Therefore, the Ascension of the Prophet to the heavens (upper world) never meant nor suggested that Allah is up there.

Because Allah Subhanahu, is Ghaniyy (not in need) of anything He created, including places. He does not need the upper world or any other place (subhanahu wa ta^ala).

N

The Imam also raised the subject of the sanctity and the significance of the Aqsa mosque and its dear place in the hearts of the Muslims. Especially, now that it’s suffering under cruelty and occupation by those who are not God-fearing and have no regard to any boundary or respect for any sacredness.

His Eminence accentuated the vital need for solidarity, cooperation, cohesion, synergy and adherence to Islam by fulfilment of its rules. Emphasizing the strength of Muslims is by our unity under the banner of this Islam through the absolute fulfilment of its rules. Our weakness is in our disintegration and distancing from the authentic religious knowledge with the illusion of unity with massive ignorance. We ask Allah to unite us, increase our religious knowledge and mend our differences.

On this great occasion, AICP asks Allah to grant Muslims peace and tranquility, unity and adherence to the rules of the Religion.

We ask Allah to bestow upon us the bounty of entering Paradise without torture and being with Prophet Muhammad sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, in Al-Firdaws Al-A^la (ameen).

The story of Isra’ & Mi^raj Prophets were sent by Allah, the Exalted, as a mercy to the slaves and supported them with great miracles to signify the truthfulness of their message. Our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam was blessed with the most miracles from all the other Prophets. Isra’ and Mi^raj is among the many miracles of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam.

After the Prophet, may Allah raise his rank, performed ^Isha’ Prayer Angel Jibril came to him with al-Buraq and they set forth on their Night Journey to Jerusalem.

During the Journey, the Prophet passed by and prayed two rak^as in: -Al-Madinah, known as Yathrib at that time,

-Madyan, the country of Prophet Shu^ayb Peace Be upon Him, -Tur Saina’, -Bayt Lahm where Prophet ^Isa (Jesus) was born.

-Then al-Buraq continued until they reached Bayt al-Maqdis (the Holy House).

Allah the Exalted gathered all the prophets to meet with Prophet Muhammad, from Adam to ^Isa (Jesus), peace and blessings be upon them all. Angel Jibril led Prophet Muhammad forward to lead them all in prayer.

This is a clear indication that Prophet Muhammad is highest in status than all the rest of the Prophets and Messengers.

Among the wonders he saw in Isra’ were: •He saw the world in the shape of an old woman •He saw Iblis (the Devil) on the side of the road, but he did not dare to speak to the Prophet or to stand in his way.

•He saw the backbiters scratching their faces and chests with brass fingernails.

After the Prophet sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam took his Night Journey from Masjid alHaram to Masjid al-Aqsa, he ascended to the upper heavens on stairs called al-Mirqat that is not usually visible to humans. The Messenger of Allah saw Prophet Adam in the first heaven, in the second heaven he saw Prophets ^Isa (Jesus) and Yahya, he then ascended to the third heaven and saw Prophet Yusuf. He ascended to the fourth heaven and saw Prophet Idris.

He continued on his ascension and saw Prophet Harun in the fifth heaven, and then to the sixth heaven where he saw Prophet Musa. Then the Prophet ascended to the seventh heaven and saw Prophet Ibrahim leaning his back against al-Baytul-Ma^mur, the Holy House. To the inhabitants of the skies (the angels), al-Baytul-Ma^mur is like the Ka^bah to the inhabitants of the earth.

Each of these prophets welcomed and greeted Prophet Muhammad warmly and made

supplication (du^a’) for him.

Among the other wonders the Messenger of Allah saw in Mi^raj: Sidratul-muntaha and al-wildanul-mukhalladun.

The Prophet saw the ^Arsh which is the ceiling of Paradise and the largest creation in size that God has created. {Literally Al^Arsh – means ‘Throne’. The ‘^Arsh’ here does not mean resembling a chair that a king sits on. But in fact, it resembles the shape of a bed (a flat surface with four pillars). It’s a majestically hugely vast body that is the ceiling of Paradise}. Allah did not create anything bigger in size than it, it is vastly larger than Paradise.

The true creed of Islam outline explicitly that Allah ta^ala the Creator of everything does not need anything and does not need the ^Arsh nor does God sit on it. God is NOT a body of any type and is clear of resembling any attribute among the creations.

Therefore, since Allah existed without a place before creating the Throne, God still exists as He was without a place because He doesn’t need anyone or anything.

The seven heavens and the earth in comparison to the Kursiyy are like a ring thrown in a desert, and the Kursiyy in comparison to the ^Arsh is like a ring thrown in a desert. The Kursiyy in comparison to the ^Arsh are like a seed of mustard compared to the ocean.

Allah created the ^Arsh as a sign and indication of His Power and did not create the ^Arsh to sit on as wrongly translated. God created the largest creation and elevated it to exist in the highest place in this universe, praise be to God! If God willed, the entire universe would be destroyed if it falls down.

Imam ^Aliyy may Allah raise his rank said: “Allah created the ^Arsh as an indication for His Power, and He did not take it as a place for Himself.”

18

Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

SOCIAL

The Work-From-Home Era Is Creating Its Own Boom Market CHECKOUT: With millions forced to work remotely, demand explodes for collapsible desks, video chat and more.

When the virus fades, experts expect the market to keep surging

By Matthew Townsend

the U.S., the evolution of telecommuting has been too slow and elitist, she says. It’s often only been a perk for executives and other high-value employees. The Great Recession did push firms to expand remote work to cut costs (think call centers). And over the past few years, more firms have rolled it out to few years ago, Marc Rosenberg was recruit and retain talent in one of the tightest trying to figure out what to do with job markets on record, although unemployhis life after a career marketing toys ment is about to swell. for the likes of Hasbro Inc. He fancied himOnly 7% of U.S. firms offer teleself an inventor, but of what?

Rosenberg discovered just what when he commuting stepped into his daughter’s college dorm Even with those incentives, only 7% of U.S. and saw her roommates on their beds, typ- firms offer telecommuting and just 3.6% of ing away on laptops. They barely used their American workers (5 million employees) desks because they said they were uncom- spend at least half their labor hours at home, fortable. An idea was born, and after crowd- according to recent government data anafunding about $500,000, Rosenberg in 2016 lyzed by Global Workplace Analytics, the launched the Edge Desk, an adjustable pop- consultancy Lister founded and runs. The up workspace with cushioned seats that now growth of remote work has been plodding sells for $400. Almost overnight, the pan- along at about 10% a year—until now when demic has created a booming work-from- tens of millions of Americans are thrust into home economy, and Rosenberg’s business setting up home offices on the fly.

“This is the perfect storm ,” Lister said. “And jumped eight-fold in the past few weeks.

“It’s been crazy,” said Rosenberg, who has once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s not gojust one full-time employee besides himself. ing back in.”

That’s precisely the bet Rousseau Kazi is “We’re managing the best we can.”

“This is going to be a seismic shift.” making as co-founder and chief executive As the U.S., and much of Europe, settles into officer of Threads, a collaboration tool that weeks, if not months, of remote work, capi- employs topic forums like those found on talism is adapting. Rosenberg said he’s not Reddit to speed project work for remote just selling a lot more desks, but he’s received workforces. interest from dozens of potential overseas The Facebook Inc. veteran reckons that the distributors in Asia and the Middle East. pandemic has sped up the move home by as ABC’s “Shark Tank,” a reality-TV contest for much as a decade. Threads, founded about entrepreneurs, even reached out, he said, three years ago and counting Silicon Valley and asked him to apply to be a contestant. stalwart Sequoia Capital as an investor, had The 55-year-old is passing because he wants been adding users slowly, but as its waitlist to focus on his next goal: building a sales ballooned and demand surged, it decided team. “This is going to be a seismic shift,” to scrap a broader launch later this year and said Rosenberg, who was quick to point out instead this week offered up a version to that his desk comes assembled and can be anyone for free through July 1. “We decided collapsed for storage under a bed. It’s easy we needed to help this,” said Kazi, who manto move around, he continued, and on many aged teams at Facebook working on projects days he works from the backyard of his ranging from mobile applications to search Deerfield, Illinois, home. “So many people functions. “Our bet is the world is going to are demanding that they want to work where become more distributed”. they want to work.” According to Kate Lis- And the 28-year-old makes a compelling ter, who has been analyzing and consulting case for why that will happen. Shocks to the companies on remote work for more than system like the virus often cause society to a decade, the current, forced work-from- leapfrog. The sharing economy, spearheaded home shift shouldn’t be underestimated. In by the likes of Uber and Airbnb, was just getting started when the financial crisis hit.

A

A few years later, society’s view about vacationing in a stranger’s home dramatically shifted. It’s now seen to many as a cheaper -and more fun—way to travel.

“This has taken a trend that’s already happening, just like the sharing economy, and bent the curve,” Kazi said.

What was once just the domain of tech firms is likely to become one of the next indemand skill sets. Don’t be surprised if “distributed management”—away to work together through online collaboration— starts popping up on many more LinkedIn bios. Expect an increasing number of companies to describe themselves as “fully distributed,” meaning everyone works remotely most of the time.

Global demand for collaboration tools will increase “exponentially” because of the outbreak, according to Wayne Kurtzman, research director for social, community and collaboration at research firm IDC. A big reason is that so many workers already use similar tools in their personal lives, so once they get the corporate version of video chat, instant messaging or forums, adoption will be quick and relatively seamless. Plus, there’s research showing that distributed teams are more productive, and happier. Kazi said one of his customers cut email traffic in half.

“A lot of the friction and time wasted is gone,” said Kurtzman, who has been involved in collaboration software for more than two decades. “That’s what a lot of companies will start learning.”

To make sure the information being shared remotely is safe, companies will have to

spend more on data protection, according to Appsian. The cybersecurity firm expects hackers to be readying attacks because of the increased vulnerabilities created by so many more remote workers.

“Without a doubt, there are a lot of really happy bad guys,” said Greg Wendt, Appsian’s executive director of security.

Slack Technologies Inc., which offers a webbased chat platform, has seen a surge of interest and a massive outpouring of questions from new and existing users, said CEO Stewart Butterfield. Demand for Zoom Video Communications Inc. conferencing software has also jumped, with downloads doubling last week, according to data from Sensor Tower.

Research firm Needham said this week said Zoom is “an exceptional business poised to benefit from the accelerated shift towards work from home,” after initiating coverage with a buy rating on the shares and price target 30% above the stock’s most recent close. Coronavirus “will accelerate the pace of change.”

Meanwhile, back in Deerfield, about 30 miles north of Chicago, Rosenberg was up at 2 a.m. talking to his manufacturing partner in Vietnam. His mind is racing with ideas for where to expand next and new products, like a paintbrush holder that artists can clip onto the desk.

“We are prepared to grow exponentially,” Rosenberg said. “We’re really just getting started.”

Source: www.bloomberg.com

Supplement may help burn fat long after exercise

Gut bacteria produce an appetite suppressant than can strengthen the effect of an exercisebased weight loss program.

The many health benefits of regular exercise are well known. However, its impact on weight loss is less clear, as exercise increases appetite, potentially resulting in an increased calorie intake. new study appearing in the journal Metabolism presents a possible solution. The research comes from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, the Universities of Glasgow and the West of Scotland, and Imperial College in London, all of which are in the United Kingdom.

It suggests that adding a certain appetitesuppressing supplement to moderate exercise increases the likelihood of weight loss, even without a change of diet.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council provided funding for this research.

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A fascinating supplement

The study explored a supplement called inulin-propionate ester (IPE).

Propionate is a short-chain fatty acid produced in the digestion of dietary fiber by gut microbes. It is a natural and effective appetite suppressor.

Propionate breaks down quickly in the body, so to strengthen its effect, scientists have chemically bound it to inulin. This is a fiber common to garlic, Jerusalem artichoke, chicory, and onion. The result is IPE. As corresponding study author Douglas Morrison notes, “There’s a great deal of interest at the moment in how our gut microbiota affects our health and well-being.”

The scientists’ previous research established that the use of IPE as a dietary supplement

increased the rate at which the body oxidizes, or burns, fat while at rest.

The research also found that IPE suppresses the urge to consume high calorie foods. As an example, those who the researchers offered all the pasta they could eat wound up eating 10% less than they usually would.

Their new study has revealed that IPE can enhance the weight loss effects of a moderate exercise program without requiring dietary changes.

As Morrison explains, “What we’ve been able to show for the first time is that this latter effect continues when exercise is added to regular IPE intake.” The study did not examine the effectiveness of a weight loss diet plus exercises plus IPE. The trial consisted of 20 women aged 25–45.

Each had a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25. The trial lasted for 4 weeks.

The team divided the participants into two groups of 10. Both groups participated in moderate exercise programs.

One group received a supplement of IPE, and the other received a placebo supplement comprising cellulose. All participants maintained their normal eating patterns throughout the trial.

The researchers measured each person’s resting fat oxidation levels both before and after the trial using blood and gas samples. They collected these before breakfast, after breakfast, and after lunch.

The participants who exercised while taking the placebo exhibited no change to their fat oxidation levels after the trials.

The group taking the IPE, however, showed a significant increase in the burning of fat at rest, even 7 hours after their most recent dose of IPE. Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com/

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Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

w o meN / Y o uth

Positive Vibes

By: Shabnam Khan - Family Counsellor We go to sleep each night and wake up in the morning to a new day with new opportunities - a day which is filled with power and freedom to choose. The minute we wake up, we can choose to get out of bed and make the most of our day or feel dread about the day ahead. This is nobody’s choice but ours.

Generally, the way we start our day influences how we feel for the rest of the day.

When you wake up in the morning, take a few minutes to take a few deep breaths and find something that you’re grateful for (your children, partner, your health or nature outside your window). Take this time to be thankful for all that you have in your life instead of wasting your energy on thinking about what you don’t have. Instead of pouncing straight out of bed, simply observe your breath. Breathe in for a count of 4 to 5 and breathe out also for a count of 4 to 5 allowing everything to drop away. Notice how your breath enters your body, notice how your breath leaves your body, and notice the little pause between each breath. This will allow you to create a sense of peace within and it will also help get you into a good head space before your feet touch the ground.

It feels good and it’s an amazing way to con-

sciously set your energy and intention towards your day moving, follow this with a nutritious breakfast to kick-start your metabolism and fuel your body to face the day ahead. Get clear about your intentions for the day. For example you can intend to have a productive day. You can intend to have quality time with your family and friends with no distractions or limitations. You can intend to have a fun and brilliant day. You can intend to have a calm and peaceful day. You can intend to learn something new or be helpful to someone. Whatever it is just be clear about what it is you want your day to be. In order to create, manifest, and attract it, you must first align your heart, mind, and spirit with your intention. In other words, you truly need to feel it!

Many people don’t understand the power of thoughts, because they live every day on autopilot, doing most things out of habit, and therefore they create their reality unconsciously as if they’re wearing a blindfold. But whether we’re aware of it or not, we create our reality with our thoughts and behaviour.

This means we have the power to choose to be a conscious, mindful creator and change our reality to what we really want it to be.

Remember, you choose your thoughts, you choose your behaviour, you choose the outcome. And every choice you make determines how you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally!! info: shabnam@skcounselling.ca

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Ground Zero

By: Asma Shums, I heard a story. Very thoughtful.

A man was driving a car on isolated road passing through forest side. A stone hit his car.

He stopped and saw that a very small, young boy has thrown that stone. He asked that boy the reason. The boy replied that his brother has fallen from wheelchair and he couldn’t lift him up and needed help. He tried to stop the cars and asked for help but nobody did.

So in desperation, to stop the car, he had to hit the stone. The gentleman helped that small boy. This incident made him think. He never repaired the dent on his branded car so that every time he would look at it, it will remind him to be helpful.

Nature and We

We all, whole world is fighting a battle against this corona virus. Don’t you think it is a call for help not only to help nature but us and other living creatures and other natural elements as well. We never pay attention, enough attention till it affects drastically. Some few alert people make noise but till it does not attack our comfort or affects us seriously we don’t pay required attention or take steps i.e. use of plastic bags.

The simplest example is running water. How many people keep the tap open while brushing, washing utensils, clothes or simply do not care to turn off the tap, lights or air conditioning. How many people do not even blink to order more food in restaurants or in events and just waste it.

Reality Check Yes, it feels harsh but we act as if we are deaf, dumb and blind. We are so engrossed in our daily life, our problems and on and on that we never think as a human on a large scale. We

have lots of energy, intelligence and capacity as a human, many things above animals. Why can’t we become responsible human beings first?

When our life is going on smoothly we are not interested. In fact, we feel bored to even read or listen to such things. I am sure now, if you are still reading this, that’s because now we are seriously threatened by virus.

Drop by Drop A lake is made by drops. We just breathe, pass day by day but as if zombie in sleep. We wake up enough only if it attacks us or our loved ones directly and with force. Now you will say what nonsense are we talking about. Now let us deal with this current problem of COVID-19. But, but, today this virus, tomorrow some other virus or some other problem will come. How many times we will only deal with only present threats. Why can’t we start from the root of the problem. Yes, we can’t go back in time to to when they didn’t occur. We can’t stop using smart phones or computers or any other electronic device. We can’t abandon the lives but we can modify it, we can take care of using all the resources carefully and keep the environment clean and needs of other people in mind.

Ground Zero Now many countries are in lockdown situations. Daily life, economy and health and mental & physical life is affected on a large scale. The world thinks as a whole world and not separate based on creed, caste and race.

All doors of man are closed such that the only true door is open: the door of God. Usually we always long for extra off day, holiday so we can rest or just relax – now we have it. Yes, we can’t go out but we can read good books, watch some programmes, clean our home, talk with long-lost friends. We can pursue our hobbies or try new ones. It is like as if somebody said stop! So back to our first thought that let use this time with patience and give it a thought about changing our outlook towards life. Let us check our perception. Let us give priority to our family and friends and nature. info at asmashums@gmail.com

One day our entire life will be like a movie in a flash back. So we need to make sure it is worth watching.

The Coronavirus

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By: Khadija Nadeem Gr.8

veryone has now heard about the seemingly dreadful Coronavirus. The Coronavirus is a newly discovered virus that causes the disease COVID-19. It was first discovered in Wuhan, China and a lot of the symptoms are similar to the Influenza Virus (commonly known as the Flu).

Most people who have been diagnosed with the Coronavirus have had mild cases and there haven’t been many cases in children. Those who are older and have weaker immune sys

tems or medical conditions are more likely to be found with the Coronavirus. Nevertheless, officials are encouraging people to wash their hands often and stay away from large public gatherings.

Airlines have canceled flight bookings going and coming from China and Iran, which seem to contain the most Coronavirus patients.

Overall, fatalities around the world from the Coronavirus are very low. To stay safe, repeatedly wash your hands and avoid touching your mouth and nose with your hands.

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Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

hea l th

Can We Learn Anything from the SARS Outbreak to Fight COVID-19?

Now, a new respiratory illness has emerged in China. Like SARS, it’s caused by a coronavirus, this one known as SARS-CoV-2.

This new virus causes an illness known as COVID-19, with symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath. There’s currently no specific antiviral treatment or vaccine for it.

More than 170 countries Trusted Source now reporting cases, some experts are questioning whether China — and the rest of the world — has fully learned the lessons from fter being criticized for a slow re- the 2003 SARS outbreak. sponse to SARS, China is once again Source: www.healthline.com facing global scrutiny for its hanSARS — Looking Back over the dling of the new coronavirus.

•By the time the global SARS outbreak was First 100 Days contained, the virus spread to over 8,000 BY: Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D. people worldwide and killed almost 800.

•Each winter, a number of surveillance •The new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which networks are put in place to detect unusucauses the disease COVID-19, has already al outbreaks of severe respiratory disease. surpassed the 2003 SARS outbreak.

It’s been 17 years since a respiratory virus •In late June of 2003, just about 100 days called severe acute respiratory syndrome after it issued its first alert about SARS, the WHO sponsored an international confer(SARS) appeared in China.

Within months, SARS spread to more than ence about the disease hosted by the Matwo dozen countries in Europe, North laysian Ministry of Health. The conference America, South America, and Asia. brought to life the maxim of the 19th-cenBy the time the global outbreak was con- tury Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard: tained, the virus had spread to over 8,000 life must be lived forwards, but it can only be people worldwide and killed almost 800. At understood backwards.. the time, the Chinese government was criti•Koch’s postulates, as modified for viral discized for responding slowly to the outbreak and concealing the seriousness of the illness. eases, have been fulfilled for the SARS-as-

A

S

sociated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the clinical illness now known as SARS. •Because health care workers are often in close contact with patients, they are at high risk, especially if there has been no reason to raise the clinical suspicion of SARS. Most of the outbreaks of SARS have occurred in this fashion, because there is not much that distinguishes the clinical picture of SARS from that of any common community-acquired pneumonia. Fever, myalgias, diarrhea, and lymphopenia are frequent but not universal findings. Known exposure to a person from a SARS-infected area remains a critical epidemiologic clue, but patients have contracted SARS during air travel — circumstances in which such a clue is easily lost.

•SARS has left its mark. There have been more than 800 deaths and many secondary consequences. Busy airports became temporary ghost towns, stock markets lost substantial value, and schools have been closed.

In some areas, health care workers have been subject to discrimination. Life is now returning to normal.

•The SARS epidemic, in which the disease spread to more than 30 countries within a few weeks, proves how small our planet has become. It has also illustrated how united we can be. A worldwide network of laboratories, assembled by the WHO, was respon-

sible for the identification of the SARS-CoV, for elucidating its molecular genetics, and for demonstrating that the SARS virus could induce respiratory illness in monkeys. There is now a coordinated effort to identify and test effective vaccines for the prevention of SARS. •Moreover, the coordination has gone beyond the scientific realm. Heads of state around the world realized that without cooperation among nations, SARS could not be contained or controlled. The SARSCoV refused to be hidden behind national boundaries. At the meeting in June, the minister of health of Vietnam, the first country outside of China to have SARS cases and the first to become SARS-free, attributed that nation’s success to its close working relationship with the WHO. The vice-minister of health of China admitted that the initial Chinese response had been slow and inadequate. China has now received help from the WHO, and as of the beginning of July, the disease appears to be under control. The SARS virus shows that when confronted by a common enemy, we can forget our differences and work together fruitfully. This was the most important lesson from the conference and from SARS. Let us hope that we can all benefit from it.

Source: www.nejm.org

down dramatically, although it was still a constant in India.

Flu Pandemic (1889-1890) Death Toll: 1 million Cause: Influenza Originally the “Asiatic Flu” or “Russian Flu” as it was called, this strain was thought to be an outbreak of the Influenza A virus subtype H2N2, though recent discoveries have instead found the cause to be the Influenza A virus subtype H3N8. The first cases were observed in May 1889 in three separate and distant locations, Bukhara in Central Asia (Turkestan), Athabasca in northwestern Canada, and Greenland. Rapid population growth of the 19th century, specifically in urban areas, only helped the flu spread, and before long the outbreak had spread across the globe.

Though it was the first true epidemic in the era of bacteriology and much was learned from it. In the end, the 1889-1890 Flu Pandemic claimed the lives of over a million individuals.

Third Cholera Pandemic (1852–1860) Death Toll: 1 million Cause: Cholera Generally considered the most deadly of the seven cholera pandemics, the third major outbreak of Cholera in the 19th century lasted from 1852 to 1860. Like the first and second pandemics, the Third Cholera Pandemic originated in India, spreading from the Ganges River Delta before tearing through Asia, Europe, North America and Africa and ending the lives of over a million people.

British physician John Snow, while working in a poor area of London, tracked cases of cholera and eventually succeeded in identifying contaminated water as the means of transmission for the disease. Unfortunately the same year as his discovery (1854) went down as the worst year of the pandemic, in which 23,000 people died in Great Britain.

The Black Death (1346-1353) Death Toll: 75 – 200 million Cause: Bubonic Plague From 1346 to 1353 an outbreak of the Plague ravaged Europe, Africa, and Asia, with an estimated death toll between 75 and 200 million people. Thought to have originated

in Asia, the Plague most likely jumped continents via the fleas living on the rats that so frequently lived aboard merchant ships.

Ports being major urban centers at the time, were the perfect breeding ground for the rats and fleas, and thus the insidious bacterium flourished, devastating three continents in its wake.

Plague of Justinian (541-542) Death Toll: 25 million Cause: Bubonic Plague Thought to have killed perhaps half the population of Europe, the Plague of Justinian was an outbreak of the bubonic plague that afflicted the Byzantine Empire and Mediterranean port cities, killing up to 25 million people in its year long reign of terror. Generally regarded as the first recorded incident of the Bubonic Plague, the Plague of Justinian left its mark on the world, killing up to a quarter of the population of the Eastern Mediterranean and devastating the city of Constantinople, where at its height it was killing an estimated 5,000 people per day and eventually resulting in the deaths of 40% of the city’s population.

Antonine Plague (165 AD) Death Toll: 5 million Cause: Unknown Also known as the Plague of Galen, the Antonine Plague was an ancient pandemic that affected Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, and Italy and is thought to have been either Smallpox or Measles, though the true cause is still unknown. This unknown disease was brought back to Rome by soldiers returning from Mesopotamia around 165 AD; unknowingly, they had spread a disease which would end up killing over 5 million people and decimating the Roman army.

Source: Mph Online

Outbreak: 10 Worst Pandemics in History

cientists and medical researchers for years have differed over the exact definition of a pandemic (is it a pandemic, or an epidemic), but one thing everyone agrees on is that the word describes the widespread occurrence of disease, in excess of what might normally be expected in a geographical region.

Cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, and influenza are some of the most brutal killers in human history. And outbreaks of these diseases across international borders, are properly defined as pandemic, especially smallpox, which throughout history, has killed between 300-500 million people in its 12,000 year existence.

The most recent outbreak of the Ebola virus, which has killed thousands of people, is still confined to West Africa. It may someday be pandemic, but for now, is considered an epidemic — and is therefore not included on this list.

HIV/AIDS Pandemic (2005-2012) Death Toll: 36 million Cause: HIV/AIDS First identified in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976, HIV/AIDS has truly proven itself as a global pandemic, killing more than 36 million people since 1981.

Currently there are between 31 and 35 million people living with HIV, the vast majority of those are in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 5% of the population is infected, roughly 21 million people. As awareness has grown, new treatments have been developed that make HIV far more manageable, and many of those infected go on to lead productive lives. Between 2005 and 2012 the annual global deaths from HIV/AIDS dropped from 2.2 million to 1.6 million.

Flu Pandemic (1968) Death Toll: 1 million Cause: Influenza A category 2 Flu pandemic sometimes referred to as “the Hong Kong Flu,” the 1968 flu pandemic was caused by the H3N2 strain of the Influenza A virus, a genetic offshoot of the H2N2 subtype. From the first reported case on July 13, 1968 in Hong Kong, it took only 17 days before outbreaks of the virus were reported in Singapore and Vietnam, and within three months had spread to The Philippines, India, Australia, Europe, and

the United States. While the 1968 pandemic had a comparatively low mortality rate (.5%) it still resulted in the deaths of more than a million people, including 500,000 residents of Hong Kong, approximately 15% of its population at the time.

Asian Flu (1956-1958) Death Toll: 2 million Cause: Influenza Asian Flu was a pandemic outbreak of Influenza A of the H2N2 subtype, that originated in China in 1956 and lasted until 1958. In its two-year spree, Asian Flu traveled from the Chinese province of Guizhou to Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States.

Estimates for the death toll of the Asian Flu vary depending on the source, but the World Health Organization places the final tally at approximately 2 million deaths, 69,800 of those in the US alone.

Flu Pandemic (1918) Death Toll: 20 - 50 million Cause: Influenza Between 1918 and 1920 a disturbingly deadly outbreak of influenza tore across the globe, infecting over a third of the world’s population and ending the lives of 20 – 50 million people. Of the 500 million people infected in the 1918 pandemic, the mortality rate was estimated at 10% to 20%, with up to 25 million deaths in the first 25 weeks alone.

What separated the 1918 flu pandemic from other influenza outbreaks was the victims; where influenza had always previously only killed juveniles and the elderly or already weakened patients, it had begun striking down hardy and completely healthy young adults, while leaving children and those with weaker immune systems still alive.

Sixth Cholera Pandemic (1910-1911) Death Toll: 800,000+ Cause: Cholera Like its five previous incarnations, the Sixth Cholera Pandemic originated in India where it killed over 800,000, before spreading to the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia. The Sixth Cholera Pandemic was also the source of the last American outbreak of Cholera (1910–1911). American health authorities, having learned from the past, quickly sought to isolate the infected, and in the end only 11 deaths occurred in the U.S. By 1923 Cholera cases had been cut

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l i f esty l e

Where Did the Most Billionaires Go to College, and What Did They Study? (Infographic)

By: Jessica Thomas ENTREPRENEUR STAFF

The narrative of the college dropout who became an insanely successful startup founder is one that’s entrepreneurial lore. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes all dropped out of undergrad, for example, and three of the four wound up building wildly successful companies. (Not too shabby.) But the reality is that for every founder who started a business in their college dorm room, there are more who finished up their degree and likely worked at low-level jobs for years before finding entrepreneurial success. Where you go to school and what you study doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll be successful, but there are some interesting commonalities among self-made billionaires.

According to research from Debut Careers, 51 billionaires received an undergrad degree from Harvard University. In second place was Stanford University, which has 34 billionaire graduates. And the story of

Forty self-made billionaires dropped out of college, and 62 didn’t even attend college to begin with.

Take a look at these infographics to further break it down. Just as Harvard leads the pack among universities, the United States leads it compared to other countries. The vast majority of self-made billionaires studied in the states.

Think you need a Harvard MBA to compete with your peers? The majority of billionaires only hold one degree. A sizable portion holds two degrees, with even fewer people holding three or four. Hedge fund billionaire Clifford Asness, who has two undergrad degrees, a masters and a Ph.D, is an anomaly among his peers.

Among those who have two degrees, an MBA is the most common post-grad degree. The majority of billionaires got a bachelor’s in arts and sciences, and nearly 150 received their MBAs.

the college dropout? There’s actually data behind it:

M

Source: www.entrepreneur.com

The Decimal and Islamic Mathematics

uslim mathematicians were the first people to write numbers the way we do, and, although we are the heirs of the Greeks in geometry, part of our legacy from the Muslim world is our arithmetic. This is true even if it was Hindu mathematicians in India, probably a few centuries before the rise of Islamic civilization, who began using a numeration system with these two characteristics: The numbers from one to nine are represented by nine digits, all easily made by one or two strokes.

The right-most digit of a numeral counts the number of units, and a unit in any place is ten of that to its right. Thus the digit in the second place counts the number of tens, that in the third place the number of hundreds (which is ten tens), and so on. A special mark, the zero, is used to indicate that a given place is empty.

These two properties describe our present system of writing whole numbers, and we may summarize the above by saying the Hindus were the first people to use a cipherized, decimal, positional system, “Cipherized” means that the first nine numbers are represented by nine ciphers, or digits, instead of accumulating strokes as the Egyptians and Babylonians did, and “decimal” means that it is base 10. However, the Hindus did not extend this system to represent parts of the unit by decimal fractions, and since it was the Muslims who first did so, they were the first people to represent numbers as we do. Quite properly, therefore, we call the system “Hindu-Arabic”.

As to when the Hindus first began writing whole numbers according to this system, the available evidence shows that the system was not used by the great Indian astrono-

mer Aryabhata (born in A.D. 476), but it was in use by the time of his pupil, Bhaskara I, around the year A.D. 520. (See Van der Waerden and Folkerts for more details.)

News of the discovery spread, for, about 150 years later, Severus Sebokht, a bishop of the Nestorian Church ( one of the several Christian faiths existing in the East at the time), wrote from his residence in Keneshra on the upper Euphrates river as follows: I will not say anything now of the science of the Hindus, who are not even Syrians, of their subtle discoveries in this science of astronomy, which are even more ingenious then those of the Greeks and Babylonians, and of the fluent method of their calculation, which surpasses words. I want to say only that it is done with nine signs. If those who believe that they have arrived at the limit of science because they speak Greek ad known these things they would perhaps be convinced, even if a bit late, that there are others who know something, not only Greeks but also men of a different language.

It seems, then, that Christian scholars in the Middle East, writing only a few years after the great series of Arab conquests had begun, knew of Hindu numerals through their study of Hindu astronomy. The interest of Christian scholars in astronomy and calculation was, in the main, due to their need to be able to calculate the date of Easter, a problem that stimulated much of the Christian interest in the exact sciences during the early Middle Ages. It is not a trivial problem, because it requires the calculation of the date of the first new moon following the spring equinox. Even the great nineteenthcentury mathematician and astronomer C.F. Gauss was not able to solve the problem completely, so it is no wonder that Severus Se-

bokht was delighted to find in Hindu sources a method of arithmetic that would make calculation easier.

We can perhaps explain the reference to the “nine signs” rather then the ten as follows: the zero (represented by a small circle) was not regarded as one of the digits of the system but simply a mark put in a place when it is empty, i.e. when no digit goes there. The idea that zero represents a number, just as any other digit does, is a modern notion, foreign to medieval though.

With this evidence that the Hindu system of numeration had spread so far by the year A.D. 662, it may be surprising to learn that the earliest Arabic work we know of explaining the Hindu system is one written early in the ninth century whose title may be translated as The Book of Addition and Subtraction According to the Hindu Calculation.

The author was Muhammad ibn Musa alKhwarizmi who, since the was born around the year A.D. 780, probably wrote his book after A.D. 800.

We mentioned in Chapter 1 that al-Khwarizmi, who was one of the earliest important Islamic scientists, came from Central Asia and was not an Arab. This was not unusual, for, by and large, in Islamic civilization it was not a man’s place (or people) of origin, his native language, or (within limits) his religion that mattered, but his learning and his achievements in his chosen profession.

The question arises, however, where al-Khwarizmi learned of the Hindu arithmetic, given that his home was in a region far from where Bishop Sebokht learned of Hindu numerals 150 years earlier. In the absence of printed books and modern methods of communication, the penetration of a discovery into a given region by no means implied its

spread to adjacent regions. Thus al-Khwarizmi may have learned of Hindu numeration not in his native Kharizm but in Baghdad, where, around 780, the visit of a delegation of scholars from Sind to the court of the Caliph al-Mansur led to the translation of Sanskrit astronomical works. Extant writings of alKhwarizmi on astronomy show he was much influenced by Hindu methods, and it may be that it was from his study of Hindu astronomy that he learned of Hindu numerals.

Whatever the line of transmission to al-Khwarizmi was, his work helped spread Hindu numeration both in the Islamic world and in the Latin West. Although this work has not survived in the Arabic original (doubtless because it was superseded by superior treatises later on), we possess a Latin translation, made in the twelfth century A.D. From the introduction to this we learn that the work treated all the arithmetic operations and not only addition and subtraction as the title might suggest. Evidently al-Khwarizmi’s usage is parallel to ours when we speak of a child who is studying arithmetic as “learning his sums”.

This article is excerpted from the book “Episodes in the Mathematics of Medieval Islam”

by J. L. Berggren.

SOURCE: ISLAMICITY

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Shaban 3, 1441H March 27, 2020

Pak i sta n

Pakistan Day was observed

by Pak High Commissioner in Ottawa Ottawa, March 23, 2020 igh Commissioner Raza Bashir Tarar, hoisted Pakistan flag, in a simple ceremony, to mark the Pakistan Day at the Chancery. National Anthem was played on the occasion and one-minute silence was observed to pay homage to all those who lost their lives due to Coronavirus.Owing to risks associated with the public gathering and in the light of Health Canada Advisory, no indoor event was planned and Pakistan Day was observed with a simple ceremony outside the Chancery.

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Debating lock downs in Pakistan

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By: Khurram Husain HO is advising Imran Khan to oppose lockdowns as a way of arresting the spread of the coronavirus? In my opinion, and I have good reason for holding this opinion, it is the industrialists of this country who are trying to convince the top leadership of this. But the same industrialists are now backing away from their opposition to lockdowns as the army has shown itself to be in favour of the strategy.

It is quite typical of this billionaire elite to couch their vested interests in some sort of overriding national priority. In times of economic adjustment, for example, they argued that textile exporters should get preferential access to natural gas at subsidised prices to help shore up the country’s foreign exchange reserves, and thereby prevent damage to the currency devaluations that bring inflation that hurts the poor.

They did not argue that they deserve preferential treatment and access to scarce gas resources so that they can make more money. That argument would not win them any concessions from the government. As it turned out, the way they framed their argument won them the concessions, and to this day the top leadership remains an ardent fan of subsidising gas and power prices for this segment, because the argument has been in-

ternalised that doing so will have a cascading series of beneficial consequences that will ultimately benefit the working poor.

Those of us who follow the economy and have observed the behaviour of the prime minister up close since he came to power have noticed the difficulty he has in making big decisions at critical times. He often hesitates when decisive action is needed that may well have adverse consequences in the short term, but which even basic common sense, let alone technical advice from the experts, tells us is necessary. He seems to lend his ear to all those who are arguing against such decisions, preferring the advice of those elements that echo his own fears.

Why is the central leadership opposed to the idea of a necessary, albeit painful, step?

Those in the business community who stand to be most hurt by the decisions that must be made find ways to disguise their vested interests in the language of some overriding national priority. This is precisely what happened in the run-up to the signing of the IMF programme, to take one example.

There were many voices at the time saying that the circumstances called for an economic adjustment that would have a very adverse impact on business and the citizenry in general, with the recognition that there was no alternative. But between November and June, the government dithered, argued, bickered and even started speaking of a ‘home-grown programme’ around February or March of 2019, saying that maybe with all the money coming in from Saudi Arabia, China and the UAE, just maybe, there may

not be any need for an adjustment after all.

That dithering and delay cost the country close to $6 billion, and eventually its hand had to be forced by replacing Asad Umar with an old school freelancer who had no compunctions about the costs of adjustment and who wasted no time in signing the dotted line with the IMF. I am reminded all over again of this story of how Pakistan embarked on its latest round of economic adjustment after a tortured path of dithering, pointless argumentation, while delusional hot takes floated on talk shows, all designed to obfuscate reality and deny the facts.

All along it was the billionaires of the business community who most dreaded the coming adjustment, even as they knew it to be inevitable. It was they who whispered complaints of the disconnect from reality that they perceived in the mind of the prime minister and his finance adviser. Later, as the adjustment got under way in earnest, it was they again who had to be called in by the army chief and told that the high interest rates and low public spending were here to stay and that they should cut out their public protestations on the direction of economic policy. They complied.

Today, all that is happening once again. It seems that one more time, the leadership has allowed itself to be talked into opposing the painful but necessary steps that the country has to take. After having climbed up the pole and publicly opposed lockdowns as a way of arresting the spread of the virus, the government finds that those who egged them on towards this path have suddenly

fallen silent themselves, because the provincial authorities are moving decisively backed by the army.

A U-turn will now be difficult because the scale of the spread of the virus would then be blamed on the delay in ordering the lockdowns, just like the delay in getting onto an IMF programme was blamed for worsening the adverse impact of the ensuing adjustment. The central leadership’s hope now is that after a few days of lockdowns people will tire of the hardship that they bring and will begin to listen to it again. But if after that should come a spike in the number of people coming to the hospitals in dire need of critical care and quarantine, the hardship of the lockdown will again be forgotten.

Now, more than ever, the prime minister needs to make that U-turn for which he has become so famous. He is right that lockdowns will be very difficult to bear for the poor and the weak. But this is the time to support the efforts of the provincial governments that are racing to build social protection programmes and ramp up their healthcare systems and testing capabilities.

Lockdowns coupled with these efforts is what it will take to get us through this challenge. The prime minister should take the lead in this and not be seen as obstructing the efforts of the provinces.

3 Pakistanis in US among Covid-19 fatalities WASHINGTON: As the coronavirus crisis intensified in the United States, three Pakistanis have been identified among 730 people who have died across the country, it emerged on Wednesday. Two of them died in New York and one in the US capital.

Rehman Shukr, son of Major General Abeera Choudhry and retired Brig Irfan Shukr, contracted Covid-19 earlier this month and was hospitalised in Washington where he died on Tuesday, according to social media reports. The 26-year-old was a financial system specialist at the International Monetary Fund. His mother is a gynaecologist in the Army Medical Corps (AMC) and his father works at a private medical university in Islamabad.

“Hard to decide whether the human aspect of the disease is more important than its implications on the economy,” Rehman posted these sentences from a New York Times article on his Facebook newsfeed on March 21. “Very easy to let emotion guide policy, and we’ve seen time after time why

that’s a bad idea.” Two died in New York and one in Washington Other Pakistanis whose lives were taken away by the virus in the US include New York-based businessman Haji Iqbal Warraich and an unnamed Pakistani woman. Both died in New York on March 23.

Mr Warraich was a philanthropist contributing regularly to Pakistani and US charities.

He was also active in community affairs. He was buried in Long Island, New York.

The Pakistani woman who died of the virus was already hospitalised in Brooklyn, New York, when she became infected with Covid-19, her friends and family said. They also said they did not wish to disclose her name to the media. She was interred in Marlboro, New Jersey. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday that more than 30,800 people had tested positive for the virus in his state, the epicentre of the US out-

break, and more than 17,800 in New York City alone, Reuters reported.

The state has reported 285 deaths and roughly half of US’s reported infections, the wire agency added.

Across the US, more than 53,000 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus that is particularly perilous to the elderly and people with preexisting medical conditions, with at least 730 deaths. World Health Organisation officials have said the United States could become the global epicentre of the pandemic, which first emerged late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan. On March 11, the virus claimed the life of the first Pakistani. But much to the relief of local health authorities and government officials back then, the person was in Italy when he passed away.

A statement issued by a spokesperson for the Foreign Office in Islamabad said the man’s name was Imtiaz Ahmed and was 61 years of age. He died of Covid-19 in Brescia, a city in the northern Italian region of Lombardy.

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CANCELLED

AL-IHSAN WOMEN’S VOCATIONAL CENTER OF BANGLADESH ANNUAL BANQUET AND FUNDRAISER 2020

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2020

Due to the COVID19 pandemic outbreakthe annual banquet and fundraiser will be cancelled this year.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

We thank you for your continued support.

Please donate online at: https://aiwvc.com/donate now Please note: •We accept Zakat & Sadaqa (tax deductible receipts will be issued) for the operational cost of running the school.

•We do Qurbani. The meat is used to feed hot lunches to our students throughout the year.

Beef share is C$160 & Lamb C$200 •Send us your Fitrana - We purchase & distribute groceries with Fitrana money before Eid-ul-Fitr so poor families can enjoy a good meal on Eid day.

•The school hosts an annual Iftaar during Ramadan and feeds about 1,000 people. The cost is $2,000 CAD$. You are encouraged to contribute to this fund.

CONTACTS: Muntasir – 604-999-5484, Ibrahim – 604-614-3132, Faizel – 604-354-6052 Shahul – 604-767-5710, Ejaz – 604-341-3127, Babor – 604-364-2486, Salahuddin (USA) – 253-334-4974 Email: admin@aiwvc.com | Website: www.aiwvc.com

HIRING IMAM

The Fleetwood Islamic Academy Society was established in 2014 with its head office in Surrey BC. It is one of the Muslim organizations in Canada serving the Muslim community of BC. It caters to diverse Muslim communities from different ethnic backgrounds.

The society is seeking to hire a qualified Imam for their Fleetwood Islamic Centre in Surrey, BC. This is a permanent and full-time position consisting of 40 hours per week based on a flex schedule as per the local requirements.

Business address and location of work #209 – 210, 8462 162 Street Surrey, BC V3S 3V4 Duties and responsibilities Duties include but not limited to: • Lead five times daily Salah; • Lead Jumah Salah with sermon; • Lead Tarawih Salah during the month of Ramadan; • Lead Eid Salah; • Participate in all Society organised functions & events • Organise youth & adult Halaqa; • Solemnizing marriage and burial ceremonies; • Religious teaching (Arabic and Quran classes); • Provide counselling services; • Participate in humanitarian endeavor, social services and welfare activities • Establish open dialogue and communication with members to provide religious guidance.

• Promote spirituality, peace & harmony in the community • Conduct regular & on-going Moulid & Dhikr Programs

Dil Apna Pakistan

Employment Requirements • Be a Sunni Muslim practicing Shafi’i madhab, well versed in Shariah and Islamic Jurisprudence.

• Must have at least 5 years’ experience in a similar position as an Imam or Islamic Counselor or Islamic Preacher or previous experience in a related occupation.

• Completion of college, university or other program in Religious or Islamic studies is required.

• Fluent in English and Arabic Wage $24.10 per hour How to Apply?

Please email your resume: fias_bc@outlook.com We would like to thank all applicants for their interest in Fleetwood Islamic Academy Society; however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

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