PassionIslam August 09

Inside this month issue

Issue: 17

The Meaning of Ramadan

Islam in Ukraine

The best 30 days of the year August 2009

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Passion Islam

I August 2009

By Inayat Bunglawala

A tale of two court cases

One man was jailed for eight years, the other put on probation.

Why the difference in sentencing?

The case of Neil MacGregor who today escaped a jail sentence and was instead given three years’ probation at the Glasgow Sheriff Court is an interesting one – not least because of its parallels with an earlier terror-related case in 2007.

MacGregor, 35, was convicted back in April after having admitted to threatening to blow up Scotland’s biggest mosque and to behead one Muslim a week until every mosque in Scotland was shut down.

MacGregor had been found to have sent Strathclyde police an email in which he said: “I’m a proud racist and National Front member. We as an organisation have decided to deal with the current threat from Muslims in our own British way like our proud ancestors ... Our demands are very small. Close all mosques in Scotland, we see this is very easy – even you guys can handle that ... If our demands aren’t met by next Friday we’ll kidnap one Muslim and execute him or her on the internet, just like they did to our Ken Bigley.”

MacGregor was charged and convicted for a breach of the peace (racially aggravated) and not under tougher anti-terror legislation which can result in far stiffer jail sentences.

However, 18 months ago, again in Scotland, a 21-year-old student, Mohammed Atif Siddique, from Alva, in Clackmannanshire, was found guilty of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to eight years in prison. Siddique was convicted of possessing items including videos of weapons use and bomb-making.

Unlike MacGregor, who was tried in a Sheriff’s Court, Siddique was sent to trial at the Scottish High Court.

Delivering the sentence, Judge Lord Carloway told Siddique: “You told fellow college students that you intended to become a terrorist and one of your targets would be central Glasgow.”

Siddique’s case made national headlines even though, as a leader column in the Scotsman made clear ... “… there was no evidence to indicate [Mohammed Atif Siddique] was actually planning to carry out an attack, or in touch with anyone who was. The material he downloaded, though obnoxious, was freely available on the internet … Not without justification, many, in and out of the Muslim community, question whether Siddique was really a terrorist deserving eight years in prison, as opposed to an impressionable student who posted inappropriate material on the web.”

Following the sentencing, Asif Siddique – Atif’s older brother – observed: “This is not a case regarding one individual, it’s a showcase, an example being made to show other Muslims, and to show the muscle of the legal system to an innocent but stupid young man.”

The police and the Crown Office

(the Scottish equivalent of the Crown Prosecution Service) may have been correct in deciding to pursue breach of the peace charges rather than terror charges in connection with MacGregor’s threats. He certainly does not appear to be terribly bright – when the Daily Record ran a story about him, MacGregor emailed them threatening to sue for “deformation” (sic) of character.

Still, perceptions do matter and a number of Muslim bloggers have unsurprisingly contrasted the treatment meted out to Neil MacGregor and Atif Siddique.

The MacGregor case also comes in the wake of a number of other very disturbing reports about our security services colluding with foreign intelligence services in the “coercive interrogation” of UK Muslim suspects, or torture by proxy.

I have previously written on Cif about how many Muslim organisations have sadly been cowed into silence – for fear of being smeared as appeasers of terrorism – and have failed to speak out against how the extremely wideranging anti-terror legislation has been applied in practice and used to put youngsters away for long periods in jail for doing little more than downloading material from some extremist websites. But the case of Atif Siddique should really give all of us cause for concern.

It is vitally important that the authorities are consistent and fair in their application of the law to all citizens regardless of their faith – and are also seen to be so – if confidence is to be maintained in our criminal justice system.

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I August 2009

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News of the World to pay £100,000 in libel damages after terrorist slur

A mechanic accused of being the financier of an Islamic cell responsible for channelling funds to banned terrorist organisations today won £100,000 in libel damages and an apology from the News of the World.

Shakil Akhtar, from High Wycombe, sued the News Group newspaper after it published a double-page spread on February 3, 2008, headlined “Evil on benefits”.

The article alleged Akhtar was “a central figure in a dangerous and militant Islamic cell” in which he was

responsible for channelling funds to organisations to pay for weapons to be used against British forces in Afghanistan.

Acting for Akhtar, Edward Yell, told the High Court today the paper then passed a dossier of “supposed evidence” to Thames Valley Police who later raided Akhtar’s home.

Yell, of London law firm CarterRuck, said the allegations had been seized upon by elements of the farright despite Akhtar never having been arrested or charged over this or any other offence.

“The truth of the matter, which the News of the World now accepts, is that Mr Akhtar is not and never has been involved in the funding of terrorism in any way whatsoever, and

nor is he or has ever been a member of a militant cell.

“The News of the World now accepts that he has no connection with terrorism whatsoever and in fact earns his living honestly as a car mechanic in High Wycombe.

The News of the World has agreed to pay compensation of £100,000 plus legal costs and to publish an apology in this Sunday’s edition of the paper.

Yell added: “Mr Akhtar would like to make it clear that he does not support or condone violence against British forces in Afghanistan, or indeed anywhere.

“Mr Akhtar and his family have been caused great hurt, distress and fear by the baseless allegations which were made against him by the News of the World.

“He is a devout Muslim and his standing in the local community has been badly affected by the article and we take the opportunity to reassure his friends and neighbours that there was no truth in these allegations.”

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MI5 role in torture case to be probed

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Following the revelation of documents proving London’s complicity in the torture of ‘terror’ suspects overseas, British MPs have called for an independent inquiry into the allegations.

A parliamentary committee on human rights criticized the government for refusing to answer questions about

whether its security service, MI5, was involved in the torture, rendition, and mistreatment of suspects, saying the British government was hiding behind a “wall of secrecy” over the allegations.

The lawmakers believe that a full independent inquiry into the allegations is the only way to address “woefully deficient” government accountability for security and intelligence services.

“In view of the large number of unanswered questions ... there is now no other way to restore public confidence in the intelligence services than by setting up an independent inquiry,” the joint parliamentary committee said in a report.

Several former Guantanamo detainees, some of them British residents, say they were tortured while held abroad with the knowledge -- if not the direct participation -- of British intelligence officers.

“The recent allegations about complicity in torture should be a wakeup call to ministers that the current arrangements are not satisfactory,” it said.

Binyam Mohamed -- a UK resident

who was released from Guantanamo in February after spending a total of seven years in US custody without charge or trial-- claims that the MI5 fed questions to his interrogators in Morocco, where he says he was severely beaten.

According to documents revealed

by Britain’s high court on Friday, an MI5 officer known as Witness B visited Morocco three times during the period former Guantanamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed, was secretly interrogated and tortured there.

The London court also said that Witness B interrogated Mohamed incommunicado in Pakistan after the UK resident was arrested in Pakistan in early 2002.

He was then transferred by US intelligence officials to Morocco, where he was tortured with impunity in the absence of relevant laws banning torture.

Lawmakers have also urged the government to immediately publish instructions given to MI5 and MI6, secret intelligence service, on the detention and interrogation of suspects abroad.

Britain’s MI5 nearly enlisted a number of al-Qaeda operatives before barring them from the security service on suspicion, a senior British parliamentarian speculates.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer said in 2005 the MI5 was somewhere down the recruiting process of the six men when it suspected their backgrounds, AFP reported.

The recruitment was taking place

as the service was diversifying its counterterrorism endeavors after the London bombings.

Two of the men had reportedly attended militant training sessions in Pakistan and others had ‘unexplained’ no-shows on their resumes.

“What concerns me is not all these individuals ... have necessarily been nailed,” added Mercer, who runs the parliamentary counter-terrorism

subcommittee.

“I would like some clarification from the government to see how successful we’ve been at detecting them.”

The intelligence body is already in hot waters over its alleged facilitation of an American torture program.

According to recently-released court papers, the MI5 would in cases interrogate the alleged terror suspects in illegal US custody.

Al-Qaeda almost entered MI5

Israeli advert banned in UK

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Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advertisement showing the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights as part of Israel.

The advertising watchdog decided to remove the posters -- promoting tourism in Israel -- after receiving hundreds of complaints, protesting that the ad featured a map that misleadingly implied the occupied territories were internationally recognized as part of Israel.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jews for Justice for Palestine and 442 members of the public were among those who called for the removal of the “Experience Israel” posters.

“We understood that the borders and status of the occupied territories of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and

I August 2009

the Golan Heights were the subject of much international dispute. And because we considered that the ad implied that those territories were part of the state of Israel, we concluded that the ad was misleading,” the ASA said in its ruling adding that the advertisement was banned from appearing in the same form again, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, however, denounced the complaints as politically motivated, saying that the map, which includes the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights as part of Israel, was intended for tourism and travel information and was not meant to carry a political message.

Israeli forces occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights during the Six-Day War in 1967.

Hired Killers Were on a “Crusade to Eliminate Muslims”

It sounds like a scene from 24 Blackwater, the company of hired killers that were sent to Iraq following America and Britain’s illegal invasion, are being brought to court by the lawyers representing the innocent Iraqi families whose lives these mercenaries destroyed.

A former employee of the company told the authorities that the founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, views himself as a “Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe” and that his companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life”.

A second former employee who is testifying against Blackwater has told the authorities that Prince sent to Iraq those “who shared his vision

of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades”.

It stated that Blackwater employees consistently used racist and derogatory terms. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades”.

Blackwater is also under investigation for the suspected murder of one or more employees who have given information to the US federal authorities in the past.

The US and our own government outright lied to all of us about the basis on which they went to war and

invaded a sovereign nation without legal pretext. It seems that this wasn’t enough. Hired killers were then allowed in to the country to wage an open crusade against Muslims.

As more stories like this reach the ears and eyes of Muslims across the country, they are surely going to be questioning just on whose interest our foreign policy in the Middle East is operating. It certainly does not seem to be in the interest of the British people, as activities like this will only threaten our national security. It also does nothing for social cohesion as the exposure of various deceptions perpetrated by our officials will only add to the anger and mistrust felt by British Muslims toward a government that neither listens to its wishes or operates on its citizens’ behalf.

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Calls for probe into Dr Kelly’s ‘suicide’

A US Air Force linguist joins a host of doctors in demanding a new probe into the mysterious death of a British scientist and weapons expert who opposed the Iraq war.

The controversy surrounding Dr. David Kelly’s death was first rekindled following a Daily Express report in June that revealed the expert was in the middle of writing a book containing damaging government secrets on the Iraq war as well as biological warfare in apartheid South Africa.

The linguist, Mai Pederson, who was part of Kelly’s weapons inspection team in Iraq, has called on the Attorney General for England, Wales and Northern Ireland to carry out an ‘independent’ review of the case, reported the Mail on Sunday.

The plea comes a week after a group of 13 doctors launched a legal campaign to challenge accepted conclusion of the case that Dr. Kelly had committed suicide after he was named as a source for a BBC report on the government’s arguable justification of the Iraq war.

The July 2003 report caused a row between Number 10 and the BBC over claims that Downing Street had

I August 2009

Certificates of approval return of application fees

“sexed up” a dossier on Iraq’s weapons capability.

The 59-year-old was found dead two days later in a forest near his Oxfordshire residence.

The Hutton inquiry, commissioned

by Tony Blair, ruled the death as an apparent suicide with a blunt gardening knife used to slit an artery on his left wrist.

The doctors, including the current cochairman of the National Health Service consultants’ association, say the wound to the tiny artery could not have caused his death and that the dose of painkillers he took before the attempt was not fatal.

There has been no reported discovery of any rough drafts of Kelly’s unfinished book, as his computers were seized following his death.

His publisher says the scientist intended to reveal that he warned then Prime Minister Tony Blair there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the start of the invasion in 2003.

Sources also claimed he was set to offer scandalous details of his own secret dealings in germ warfare with the apartheid regime in South Africa.

On 9 April 2009 the UK Border Agency suspended the fee for applications to obtain a certificate of approval - a document that is required by many migrants who are subject to immigration control and who want to get married or register a civil partnership in the United Kingdom.

If you applied for a certificate of approval between 1 February 2005 and 8 April 2009, you may now be eligible to have the fee returned to you if you can demonstrate that payment of the fee caused you real financial hardship.

You can find out more about the eligibility criteria and how to request a return of your fee by downloading the request form and advice from the right side of this page.

Muslims welcome head coverings for UK female police officers

A major police force in south-west England is issuing its female officers with head coverings to be used in places of worship to improve relations with Muslim communities, it was announced.

Avon and Somerset Police’s female police officers and Police Community Support Officers are being given uniform-issue head coverings to be worn when they are on duty and entering places of worship.

There are two versions of the head coverings to match the black of

a police officer’s uniform and the blue of the Police Community Support Officer uniforms.

They have already been issued to eight Police Community Support Officers and seven police officers, including Assistant Chief Constable MissJackie Roberts.

Miss Roberts said in a statement “Producing head coverings for our officers and staff to wear in places of worship is part of our commitment to engage with all our communities.”

“It recognises and respects the

cultural and religious practices of our communities.” “This is a very positive addition to the Avon and Somerset uniform and one which I’m sure will be a welcome item for many of our officers.” For his part, Rashad Azami, Imam and director of the Bath Islamic Society, in south-west England, said “It is highly pleasing to see that the Avon and Somerset Constabulary is introducing specially designed head coverings for female officers as part of their police uniform.” passionislam.com

BBC apology and £45k damages to Muslim leader

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The BBC has apologised and paid £45,000 in damages to the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain over comments made about him by former Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore on Question Time.

The BBC issued its apology to Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari at the high court in London this morning and agreed to pay damages and legal costs.

The court heard that during the BBC1 Question Time programme on 12 March a member of the public asked the panel: “Should these protests we saw last week when the Royal Anglia Regiment came to Luton be banned?”.

It was a reference to protests organised by a group of Muslims targeting the British troops.

In response to the question, Moore suggested that despite having been asked many times to condemn the kidnapping and killing of British soldiers, the Muslim Council of Britain had failed to do so and so implicitly condoned such acts.

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He further suggested that the leadership of the MCB believes the kidnapping and killing of British soldiers to be a good and Islamic thing.

Although Bari was not mentioned by name, his lawyers Carter Ruck argued that by talking about the “leadership” of the MCB, Moore had libelled Bari in his capacity as leader and chief spokesperson of the MCB. His solicitor Adam Tudor said in court today: “My Lord, I am pleased to say that the defendant accepts that these allegations about the claimant are untrue.

“The claimant does not condone the kidnapping and killing of British soldiers and does not believe this would be a good or Islamic thing to do.

I August 2009

“In fact in 2007 the claimant said publicly that the killing of British troops in Iraq was unacceptable.”

Bari has said he will pay the damages to charity.

The BBC said that it “apologises unreservedly to the claimant for the allegations broadcast on Question Time and is pleased to set the record straight”.

Campaign against attacks on Muslims launched

Passion Islam

I August 2009

Muslim leaders, lawyers, campaigners and politicians came together in parliament to launch a campaign against attacks on the Muslim community in Britain.

A campaign spokesperson said the discovery of arms caches and bombs set by far right activists to attack mosques “is the most extreme instance of a growing assault against Britain’s Muslims.”

“Harrassment by the police, vilification by much of the media, defamation by politicians and a growing campaign against the wearing of the veil have created the sense that Muslims in Britain are under attack on many fronts,” said the spokesperson.

The campaign will be called ‘Enough’, ‘Kafa’ in Arabic, reflecting the mood in Britain’s Muslim Communities.

The campaign launch will be attended by Daud Abdullah of the

LOCAL & NATIONAL NEWS

Muslim Council of Britain, Baroness Jenny Tonge, human rights lawyer, Gareth Pierce, Eman Penny from Protect Hijab, George Galloway MP,

Hajj conman jailed for £570,000 fraud

The Association of British Hujjaj (ABH) has called for mainstream agencies to sell the Muslim pilgrimage to Makkah after a conman was jailed for tricking customers out of about £570,000.

Mohammed Faruk Ahmed was jailed for six years after absconding with the money of 300 people who had booked the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia through his agency.

Ahmed had pleaded guilty on July 4 at Snaresbrook Crown Court to a string of fraud and money laundering offences.

Ahmed, 41, of Brick Lane, London, was running a travel agency called Qibla Hajj Kafela Services in Old Montague Street, East London. He took payments totalling £570,000 and spent some of it in casinos and gambling shops. He transferred the rest of it to Bangladeshi bank accounts.

The conman preyed on the local community and Muslims in other parts of the country. The Hajj pilgrimage costs about £2,000 per person and many of his victims were elderly and had been saving for several years to attend.

ABH general secretary Khalid Pervez said: “We would like more highstreet agencies to arrange Hajj tours.

The number of Hajj travel companies violating industry legislation has increased significantly in the last few years, and there is a perception among unscrupulous tour and travel operators that they are untouchable.”

The police are talking to Bangladeshi authorities about recovering the funds. Metropolitan Police detective inspector Des McHugh added: “The court recognised the impact that this fraud had on its victims. The sentence imposed reflected this.”

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Lindsey German from Stop the war Coalition, Shamiul Joarder from Friends of Al Aqsa and Abdurrahman Jafar from the Muslim Safety Forum.

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Families returning to Swat face hunger this Ramadan 12

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I August 2009

Islamic Relief aid workers are warning that people returning home to Swat in North West Pakistan are facing serious shortages of food.

After three months of living with host families or in camps, some of the three million displaced people have started to return to their homes.

Many have found that their houses and livelihoods have been destroyed and the infrastructure of the region devastated. The damage to the agricultural sector and the continuing curfew in the region means they will struggle to feed their families this Ramadan.

Around 60 per cent of those who were forced to flee their homes make a living from farming. During the conflict they were unable to go home to harvest their crops and fruit, or to plant rice for the forthcoming season.

This has created shortages of food and has also left farmers with no source of income.

The ongoing curfew means all the shops and markets are still closed, while others in larger towns such as Mingora have been destroyed or damaged. People are unable to buy even basic food items.

Islamic Relief aid worker Sultan Mahmood said, “I have just visited Swat and I believe that progress there has gone back ten years. Swat was once a progressive and bustling economic centre. Many people would make their living from the abundant orchards in the region, but the last harvest has all been lost and people

are unsure how they will support their families over the coming months.”

According to Islamic Relief Pakistan, around 90 percent of the population of Swat left their homes due to the fighting and the majority travelled to Mardan District where they found refuge with local families or in schools and hospitals. Around 50 per cent of the displaced people in Lower Swat have now returned to their homes and many more will return in the coming weeks as the start of the holy month of Ramadan draws near.

“People in Swat are still very scared that the fighting might start again but came back because they desperately missed their homes and their relatives,” said Sultan Mahmood.

“They have returned to find the curfew still in place and the agriculture sector devastated. This means they are approaching Ramadan with the very real threat of food shortages hanging over them.”

A Palestinian human rights group slammed Israeli treatment of Palestinian female prisoners in a UNsponsored report saying pregnant women are often shackled on their way to hospitals to give birth.

The women prisoners are held in “Israeli prisons and detention centres which were designed for men and do not respond to female needs,” said a report by the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, which was sponsored by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Pregnant detainees “do not enjoy preferential treatment in terms of diet, living space or transfer to hospitals,” it said. “Pregnant prisoners are also chained to their beds until they enter delivery rooms and shackled once again after giving birth.

“The unbalanced diet, insufficient amounts of protein-rich foods, lack of natural sunlight and movement, poor ventilation and moisture all

contribute to the exacerbation and the development of health problems such as skin diseases, anaemia, asthma, prolonged stomach aches, joint and back pains.”

In addition, the majority of the prisoners were “subjected to some form of mental pressure and torture through the process of their arrest,” including beatings, insults, threats, sexual harassment and humiliation techniques.

The vast majority of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons are young -some 13 percent of those arrested in 2007-2008 were under the age of 18 and 56 percent were between 20 and 30 years of age.

The detainees are often denied means to study, which violates their rights to a higher education and suffer from restrictions on visits.

In September 2008, some 60 percent had at least one family member who was not allowed to visit them. Open visits were restricted to

mothers once their children reached the age of six.

Female prisoners with a husband or other relatives also in jail were “accorded the right to family visits... after months of delays.”

In addition, the Israeli prison authorities do not provide gendersensitive rehabilitation programmes, it said.

The report was based on interviews with 125 Palestinian women who were arrested, detained or imprisoned in Israeli jails between November 2007 and November 2008. Of those, some 65 remain in prison -- part of some 9,000 Palestinians currently incarcerated in Israel.

A spokesman for the Israeli prison authorities said he was not aware of the report and could not comment.

Israel abusing Palestinian female prisoners

Saudi Arabia abusing fight against terrorism Passion Islam

I August 2009

Saudi Arabia has been abusing the fight against terrorism and violating the rights of people by detaining thousands under the pretext of security since 2001, says a new Amnesty International (AI) report.

In a 69-page report, the human rights organization has warned that an unspecified number of detainees are being held in virtual secrecy, without access to lawyers or visitors for months or years and that some people have been killed in ‘uncertain circumstances’.

According to the human rights organization, those who are brought to trial often face grossly unfair procedures that can be easily described as shocking.

The number of people being held arbitrarily, including both locals as

WORLD NEWS

well as foreigners, “has risen from hundreds to thousands since 2001”, said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program.

“These unjust anti-terrorism measures have made an already dire human rights situation worse,” he said.

In a campaign of repression justified with the claim of security enforcement, Saudi Arabia has detained an unknown number of human rights defenders, advocates of political reform and members of religious minorities who had committed no crime recognized by the international law, he added.

Citing June 2007 confirmation by the Saudi Interior Ministry that 9,000 security suspects were detained

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between 2003 and 2007 and that 3,106 of them were then still being held, Amnesty reported that some of the captives are prisoners of conscience, targeted for their criticism of government policies.

The report was released after Saudi Arabia handed down verdicts earlier this month for its first publicly reported trials since al-Qaedalinked militants allegedly began their campaign in 2003 against the world’s top oil exporter.

In all, 289 Saudi Arabian nationals and 41 foreigners received sentences of up to 30 years in prison, Saudi state media said last week. It did not reveal the nationalities of those accused.

One unnamed person was also sentenced to death, a government official said.

Saudi university among Lack of Quran Copies Major top world’s best 200 Problem in Cambodia

A renowned university in Saudi Arabia entered the club of the world’s best 200 academic institutions according to the Spanish international classification system “Webometrics,” which also ranked the university as the first in Arab and Islamic Worlds for web visibility.

King Saud University (KSU) ranked 197 worldwide and the first in the Arab and Islamic university world for its Internet dissemination of scientific knowledge, reaching a wider audience of researchers and institutions with its advanced web policy, according to the Webometrics Ranking of World’s Universities.

King Saud University jumped from 3259th place in 2007 to 292nd place in 2009 In 2007 KSU occupied the 3259th place, and in July 2008 it came in at the 380th place, finally reaching

the 292nd place in 2009 in an unprecedented jump for an Arab and Islamic university ever. For Asia, KSU was the 21st.

KSU’s record achievement was attributed to its diversified development scheme that aimed to advance its nano program and satellite labs as well as its renowned recruitment policy that allows for partnering with the best scientists including Nobel laureates.

Following KSU, four other Saudi universities occupied the top five placements with Cairo University coming in at the 6th place.

Webometrics is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research project devoted to the quantitative analysis of the Internet and Web contents specially those related to the processes of generating scholarly communication of scientific knowledge. passionislam.com

With the holy month of Ramadan approaching, Muslims in Cambodia are complaining about lack of copies of the holy Quran.

The tebasel.com website quoted Cambodia’s mufti Karmaruddin Yusuf as saying that it is difficult for Muslim scholars to propagate Quranic concepts and Islamic teachings among the country’s Muslims due to lack of Qurans.

“Cambodia’s Islamic community is now in great need of Quran copies,” he stressed.

Ahmad Saeed, head of Divanol-Amal Islamic Organization is also quoted as saying that Cambodian Muslims need at least 200,000 Qurans.

Mosques and Islamic centers in Cambodia have called on Islamic countries to donate Qurans to be distributed among the country’s Muslims.

Canadian cleared of terror

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Sudanese born Canadian Abousfian Abdelrazik was finally acquitted of terror charges.

In a related development that underscored Mayr Harting’s criticism of the list’s flaws, Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Sudanese born Canadian who was accused of having ties to al-Qaeda, was

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finally cleared of charges and returned to his home in Canada last week after six years in exile in Sudan.

Abdelrazik was forced to remain in exile when he left Canada to visit his ailing mother in Sudan after the U.N. Committee had placed sanctions on him following

I August 2009

U.S. charges that he provided administrative and logistical support to al-Qaeda.

Abdelrazik, who denied being a terrorist, vowed to clear his name and have officials who accused him face justice. His assets remain frozen. passionislam.com

Germany ducks Kuwait criticism over to hold Marwa murder National Quran contest

Amid world condemnation over the murder of a pregnant Egyptian woman in a Dresden courtroom, the German government says it should not be held responsible for the incident.

More than a weeks after the brutal murder of Marwa al-Sherbini sent shockwaves around the world, Iranian government advisor Zahra Sajjadi accused the German government of orchestrating the incident.

Sajjadi, in a recent interview with Fars News Agency, called for the formation of an international factfinding committee to find the real reason behind the German court’s failure to ensure Marwa’s safety.

German government spokesman Thomas Steg rejected the accusation on Thursday, saying the claim was “absurd”.

Christian Avenarius, a spokesman with Dresden prosecutor’s office, has also argued that there was “absolutely no evidence” that el-Sherbini would have been in danger in the courtroom.

Marwa, who was about four months

pregnant, was suing her neighbor for insulting her and calling her a terrorist for wearing an Islamic head scarf, when the defendant approached the witness stand and stabbed her 18 times in front of her 3-year-old son.

Her husband, who had attempted to shield his wife, was shot by security guards who had confused him with the assailant.

While the incident has shaken the Muslim world to its core, the German state and media have ever since been in a state of denial.

The Tehran government has called for legal action against the German court officials who stood by and watched Marwa get stabbed to death.

Iranian Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi said Tuesday that the German judicial authorities who were present at the scene should be prosecuted for “sheer inaction”.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, has charged Germany with double standards on human rights and has asked the UN Security Council to take appropriate action.

13th edition of Kuwait’s national Quran Memorization and Recitation Contest will be held late September, Kuwaiti al-Ghabas daily reported.

According to Manal Al-Sagar, head of the Endowments Fund for Quran, the contest is to be held at the country’s great mosque under the patronage of Kuwait’s ruler Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

“The competition is the greatest Quranic event in Kuwait and the Middle East which is annually held by the Endowments Fund for Quran in cooperation with Kuwait Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs,” he added.

Manal Al-Sagar said that the contest will be held under the two categories of Quran memorization and Tajweed separately for men and women.

He termed motivating the youth to memorize the Quran and serving holy Quran as the objectives of the contest.

Al-Sagar also said that “Mabrah al-Rabbaniyin” and “Ahlul Bayt (AS)” Quranic Charity Associations will cooperate in holding the Quranic event.

Muslims slam discriminate law in US

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WORLD NEWS

A leading US Muslim civil rights organization on slammed a draft state law that would bar teachers in public schools from wearing “religious dress” such as a headscarf.

“This legislation forces Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and others to choose between their faith and entering the teaching profession,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), referring to a bill before the governor of the northwestern state of Oregon.

“Merely wearing a headscarf is not proselytizing; it’s a statement of faith. Practicing one’s faith is a right guaranteed by the constitution,” said Hooper.

CAIR cites a clause of the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act as saying: “No teacher in any public school shall wear any religious dress while engaged in the performance of duties as a teacher.”

The bill also says education officials and schools would not be breaking the law if they “prohibit a teacher from wearing religious dress while engaged in the performance of duties as a teacher.”

Hooper questioned whether the

law would be applied to Christian crosses or the Jewish Star of David, or if it would affect a Muslim woman who did not normally wear a scarf but had to undergo chemotherapy and lost her hair.

“Would she be put through an inquisition to determine if she was making a religious statement or not?” he said.

Hooper also pointed out that the Oregon legislation directly contradicts a statement made by US President Barack Obama during a speech in

The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, will not adopt a policy that will jeopardize the peace of the Middle East, said Hamas politburo chief Khalid Mishaal.

These remarks came during Mishaal’s meeting Saturday night with Russia’s Middle East Envoy Alexander Sultanov, who is visiting Damascus within his regional tour.

Sultanov is scheduled to discuss with Syrian Foreign Minister Waleed Al-Muallem the situation in the region, and the peace process.

The talks were “positive” and covered inter-Palestinian conciliation, Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the situation in the region, according to Hamas politburo member Mohammad Nasr.

They discussed the topics that will be tackled during the upcoming Moscow peace conference, he said, adding that Sultanov hoped that the conference would prove fruitful.

The Russian side did not offer to mediate in the prisoners’ exchange deals, he said, and noted that Hamas

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Egypt in June.

“Freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one’s religion,” Obama said in the speech.

“That is why the US government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.”

The bill has been passed by the Oregon state legislature and the governor “has said he will sign it,” said Hooper. passionislam.com

Hamas to take stance that promotes Mideast peace

reiterated its readiness for any attempts directed towards freeing prisoners, he added.

Sultanov said that it was important for Palestinians to reach conciliation to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Russian sources said, adding that the Hamas delegation hailed Russia’s supportive stance. Sultanov said Hamas should adopt a more flexible policy, while Mishaal said that Hamas’s stance would not conflict with international efforts directed towards reviving the peace process.

Canada spy agency ignoresdetainee’s rights

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Canada’s spy agency ignored human rights concerns while questioning teenage Canadian terrorism suspect Omar Khadr at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba in 2003, a government-commissioned report published found.

“At the time that CSIS interviewed Mr Khadr in 2003, there were widespread allegations of mistreatment and abuse of detainees in US custody “ SIRC reportThe Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) found that the spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), also failed to give full consideration to possible U.S. mistreatment of the detainee, Omar Khadr.

“SIRC believes that CSIS failed to take into account that, while in U.S. custody, Khadr had been denied certain basic rights which would have been afforded to him as a youth,” the report said.

The report examined the role played by Canadian intelligence in

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the detention of Khadr, now 22 years old, who is accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.

Khadr, who was just 15 at the time of his arrest, is the last Western detainee at the U.S.-run prison camp at Guantanamo.

At the time that CSIS interviewed Mr Khadr in 2003, there were widespread allegations of mistreatment and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, (yet the) SIRC did not find any evidence that CSIS took this information into account in deciding to interview Mr Khadr,” the report said.

It noted that the spy service had been tasked with collecting “intelligence on a potentially serious terrorist threat and to provide advice to the government of Canada accordingly.”

However, it also is charged to act within the bounds of Canadian and international law, the report admonished, noting that as a minor, Khadr enjoyed a special status

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and had been “entitled to certain fundamental rights.”

Although Canadian intelligence had “reasonable grounds” to travel to Guantanamo to interview Khadr,” SIRC found no evidence that CSIS took Khadr’s age into consideration” before conducting the interrogation,” the report concluded.

UN terror suspect list has many flaws: official

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I August 2009

WORLD NEWS

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Dozens of terrorism suspects remain on a United Nations sanctions list despite having likely died and information on others is so scant as to render their inclusion useless, a U.N. ambassador said.

These flaws make it tough to impose bans on people and companies on the list linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, even as new threats emerge in countries like Somalia, said Thomas Mayr-Harting, who chairs the U.N. Security Council’s al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee.

Of 513 entries on the list which includes 402 people and 111 companies, 38 people were reported or believed to be dead, Mayr-Harting, who is also Austria’s ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters.

“It is not the purpose of the list to contain dead people,” he said, adding that as much as a third of the list is basically useless because the information available is too sketchy for law enforcement officials to act on.

“Either you improve credibility by improving the list or by taking the names off,” he said.

UN But taking the dead people’s

names off the list requires consensus among all members, which slows the process, Mayr-Harting said. Relatives of the dead cannot access assets that were frozen until the names are struck off, he added.

A resolution adopted last year has helped the committee make the list more relevant to today’s threats. The committee is reviewing the list case by case and expects to weed out the irrelevant entries by the middle of next year, Mayr-Harting said.

The Security Council set up the committee, made up of all 15 members, in 1999 to impose sanctions on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan for its support of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The list now includes names of people and firms that have ties to the Taliban, al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.

The threat posed by them has grown dramatically since then but the sanctions list does not reflect the changes, Mayr-Harting said.

The House Intelligence Committee announced it will investigate whether the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) broke the law by not informing Congress about a secret program to assassinate Al-Qaeda leaders.

“I intend to make this investigation fair and thorough, and it is my goal that it will not become a distraction to the men and women of the CIA,” said Committee Chairman Representative Silvestre Reyes.

CIA Director Leon Panetta cancelled this counterterrorism unit

on June 23 and told the House and Senate intelligence committees the next day that former Vice President Dick Cheney asked the CIA not to inform lawmakers about this secret CIA program, which reportedly remained in the planning stages.

CIA Spokesman Paul Gimigliano said the agency shares the goal of Congress and will work closely with the committee on its review.

House Representative Jan Schakowsky will head an investigation to explore the nature and details of

this secret program.

House Representative Peter Hoekstra, the senior Republican on the committee, criticized the investigation as “partisan, political theater.” “At no time will the Republicans of this committee agree to or take part in congressional Democrats efforts to tear down the CIA to provide cover for Speaker Pelosi,” said Hoekstra in a statement. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently accused the CIA of misleading her about its harsh interrogation program.

US to investigate CIA secret program

Safeguarding the Spirit of Fasting

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Owing to the institutional nature of fasting and its widespread popularity it was quite possible that it degenerated into a lifeless ritual with people taking to fasting out of habit or for fear of social censure. It was not inconceivable that the Muslims lost sight of its intrinsic significance and began to fast only because of material benefits or medical advantages. The holy Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) had foreseen this possibility and to safeguard against it he had made it known, at the very first step, that only that fast was acceptable to God which was observed in the spirit of faith and trust in Divine Recompense. Thus, a Tradition of his says, ‘He who fasted with Imaan (faith) and Ihtisaab (trust in Divine Recompense) all his previous sins will be forgiven.’ (Sheikhain) For those who are not cognizant of the weaknesses of the human nature it may be hard to appreciate the relevance of this stipulation. They may argue that since it was only the Muslims who observed fasting and they did it wholly for propitiating God and earning His reward the requirement of faith and trust was unnecessary. But if one cared to enquire into the peculiar make-up of human personality and the working of social and moral incentives one was bound to submit to the wisdom of the far-reaching provision and to bow down before the dept and profundity of knowledge which has its roots not in human perception but Divine revelation. ‘Nor doth he speak of his own desire. It is naught save an inspiration that is inspired.’ (liii:3-4) In a Prophet’s tradition the state of Imaan and Ihtisab has been defined as one in which a person performs good and virtuous deeds in the hope of Divine Recompense and with faith in the promise of Divine good pleasure and forgiveness.

It is related by Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas that the Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) once said, ‘There

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are forty deeds among which the best if the gift of a goat. If any of these is performed in the hope of Divine Recompense and with faith in the reward promised on it, God will allow such a person to enter Paradise.’

(Bukhari) The Islamic Shari’ah does not rest

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content at prescribing the outward form and ceremony of fasting but also lays stress on its inner content and significance. It prohibits not only food and drink and sexual gratification during a fast but everything that is detrimental to its basic purpose and objective. It has encompassed fasting,

I August 2009 on all sides, with piety, reverence and cleanliness. The Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) has said, ‘When any of you keeps a fast he should not utter a filthy or indecent word or engage in a noisy scene, and were anyone to quarrel with him and call him names he should simply say, ‘I am keeping fast’. (Ibid). On another occasion, he said, ‘God has no need for him to go without food and drink who cannot shun evil and falsehood even during a fast.’ (Ibid) A fast which is devoid of the spirit of piety and purity is like a body without a soul. The Prophet, again, is reported to have said, ‘Many are there among you who fast and yet again nothing from it except hunger and thirst, and many are there who pray (throughout the night) and yet gain nothing from it except wakefulness.’ (Ibid) It is related by Hadhrat Abu Hurayra (Radhiallaahu Anhu) that the holy Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) once said, ‘Fasting is a shield until it is ripped.’

Fasting in Islam does not merely denote certain negative acts like the shunning of food and drink and abstaining from falsehood and backbiting and from wrangling and uttering a foul or profane word but it also includes a number of positive deds, such as, prayer, Dhikr, compassion and charity. The Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) has said, ‘If in it (i.e., the month of Ramadhaan) a person will seek the propitiation of God by doing anything it will be treated as equal (in recompense) to the fulfillment of an obligatory duty in the other days of the year and if he will fulfil an obligatory duty in it, it will be treated as equal (in recompense) to the fulfillment of

I 19 the rush was so great that the whole of the Mosque was filled until the prophet came for the Fajr prayers.

After he had completed it he turned towards the people and said, ‘I was not unaware of your presence (in the mosque last night) but I feared that the service (Taraweeh) might be made obligatory and then you got tired of it.’ Then the death occurred of the Prophet and the position remained the same.’ (Bukhari) After the passing away of the Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam), the holy Companions conducted themselves similarly and so enthusiastically did the Muslims everywhere keep up the tradition of Taraweeh that it came to be regarded as a sign and symbol of AhlusSunnah and a mark of devoutness. In addition, the institution of Taraweeh had proved extremely helpful in the learning of the whole of the Qur’aan by heart. More and more people were drawn to it, and the Qur’aan came to be preserved in many a breast.

Another priceless advantage is that a large section of the community is thus enabled to devote itself to nightly worship in the blessed month of Ramadhaan. Ramadhaan is a festival of worship, a season of Tilaawat and springtime for the devout. The religious fervour of the Muslim Millat, its genuine, solid and unshakeable attachment to faith and enthusiasm for worship acquired a new warmth and sublimity in it.

During this hallowed month the urge for excelling others in prayerfulness, piety, warmheartedness, charity, good doing and repentance is at the peak among the Muslims. passionislam.com SPECIAL FEATURE

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seventy obligatory duties in the other days of the year. It is the month of patient perseverance and the reward on patient perseverance is Paradise, and it is the month of Compassion.’

(Baihaqi) It is related by Zayd ibn Khalid alJohhani (Radhiallaahu Anhu) that the Prophet once remarked, ‘He who will invite a person who is fasting to break the fast with him will get the same reward as the one who was fasting and there will be no reduction in the reward of the latter either.’ (Tirmidhi) God has also blessed the Muslim Millat with the prudence and anxiety to preserve the tradition of Taraweeh.

The celebration of the prayerservice of Taraweeh dates back from the time of the holy Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) but he had abandoned it after offering it up for three days lest it was made compulsory for Muslims and became a burden to them. It is related by ibn Shihaad that he had heard it from Urwah (Radhiallaahu Anhu) who, in his turn, had heard it from Hadhrat Aaisha (Radhiallaahu Anha), that ‘once the Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) went out in the night (after the Isha prayers) and offered Salaat in the mosque and some other persons also joined him in it.

When the morning came people began to talk about it and a crowd collected. On the next day when he offered the prayer they all offered it up with him and it was again talked about on the following morning. On the third night the number of the devotees was even greater. The Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) came out and offered up the prayer with them. When the fourth night came

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The Meaning of Ramadan

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Fasting during Ramadan, the Muslims holy month, was ordained during the second year of Hijrah. Why not earlier? In Makkah the economic conditions of the Muslims were bad.

They were being persecuted. Often days would go by before they had anything to eat. It is easy to skip meals if you don’t have any. Obviously fasting would have been easier under the circumstances. So why not then?

The answer may be that Ramadan is not only about skipping meals.

While fasting is an integral and paramount part of it, Ramadan offers a comprehensive program for our spiritual overhaul. The entire program required the peace and security that was offered by Madinah.

Yes, Ramadan is the most important month of the year. It is the month that the believers await with eagerness. At the beginning of Rajab --- two full months before Ramadan -- the Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, used to supplicate

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thus: “O Allah! Bless us during Rajab and Sha’ban, and let us reach Ramadan (in good health).”

During Ramadan the believers get busy seeking Allah’s mercy, forgiveness, and protection from Hellfire. This is the month for renewing our commitment and re-establishing our relationship with our Creator. It is the spring season for goodness and virtues when righteousness blossoms throughout the Muslim communities.

“If we combine all the blessings of the other eleven months, they would not add up to the blessings of Ramadan,” said the great scholar and reformer Shaikh Ahmed Farooqi (Mujaddad Alif Thani). It offers every Muslim an opportunity to strengthen his Iman, purify his heart and soul, and to remove the evil effects of the sins committed by him.

Anyone who fasts during this month with purity of belief and with expectation of a good reward (from his Creator), will have his previous sins

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forgiven,” said Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam. “Anyone who stands in prayers during its nights with purity of belief and expectation of a reward, will have his previous sins forgiven.” As other ahadith tell us, the rewards for good deeds are multiplied manifold during Ramadan.

Along with the possibility of a great reward, there is the risk of a terrible loss. If we let any other month pass by carelessly, we just lost a month. If we do the same during Ramadan, we have lost everything. The person who misses just one day’s fast without a legitimate reason, cannot really make up for it even if he were to fast everyday for the rest of his life. And of the three persons that Prophet, SallAllahu alayhi wa sallam cursed, one is the unfortunate Muslim who finds Ramadan in good health but does not use the opportunity to seek Allah’s mercy.

One who does not fast is obviously in this category, but so also is the

Passion Islam I August 2009 person who fasts and prays but makes no effort to stay away from sins or attain purity of the heart through the numerous opportunities offered by Ramadan. The Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, warned us: “There are those who get nothing from their fast but hunger and thirst. There are those who get nothing from their nightly prayers but loss of sleep.”

Those who understood this, for them Ramadan was indeed a very special month. In addition to fasting, mandatory Salat, and extra Travih Salat, they spent the whole month in acts of worship like voluntary Salat, Tilawa (recitation of Qur’an), Dhikr etc. After mentioning that this has been the tradition of the pious people of this Ummah throughout the centuries, Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi notes: “ I have seen with my own eyes such ulema and mashaikh who used to finish recitation of the entire Qur’an everyday during Ramadan.

They spent almost the entire night in prayers.

They used to eat so little that one wondered how they could endure all this. These greats valued every moment of Ramadan and would not waste any of it in any other pursuit…

Watching them made one believe the astounding stories of Ibada and devotion of our elders recorded by history.”

This emphasis on these acts of worship may sound strange --- even misplaced --- to some. It requires some explanation. We know that the term Ibada (worship and obedience) in Islam applies not only to the formal acts of worship and devotion like Salat , Tilawa, and Dhikr, but it also applies to worldly acts when performed in obedience to Shariah and with the intention of pleasing Allah. Thus a believer going to work is performing Ibada when he seeks Halal income to discharge his responsibility as a bread-winner for the family. However a distinction must be made between the two. The first category consists of direct Ibada, acts that are required for

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their own sake. The second category consists of indirect Ibada --- worldly acts that become Ibada through proper intention and observation of Shariah. While the second category is important for it extends the idea of Ibada to our entire life, there is also a danger because by their very nature these acts can camouflage other motives. (Is my going to work really Ibada or am I actually in the rat race?). Here the direct Ibada comes to the rescue. Through them we can purify our motives, and re-establish our relationship with Allah.

Islam does not approve of monasticism. It does not ask us to permanently isolate ourselves from this world, since our test is in living here according to the Commands of our Creator. But it does ask us to take periodic breaks from it. The mandatory Salat (five daily prayers) is one example. For a few minutes every so many hours throughout the day, we leave the affairs of this world

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and appear before Allah to remind ourselves that none but He is worthy of worship and of our unfaltering obedience. Ramadan takes this to the next higher plane, providing intense training for a whole month.

This spirit is captured in I’tikaf, a unique Ibada associated with Ramadan, in which a person gives up all his normal activities and enters a mosque for a specific period.

There is great merit in it and every Muslim community is encouraged to provide at least one person who will perform I’tikaf for the last ten days of Ramadan. But even those who cannot spare ten days are encouraged to spend as much time in the mosque as possible.

Through direct Ibada we “charge our batteries”; the indirect ones allow us to use the power so accumulated in driving the vehicle of our life.

Ramadan is the month for rebuilding our spiritual strength. How much we benefit from it is up to us.

If you have a Question regarding this subject or any other featured articles we have covered please email us o info@passionislam.com and we will forward it onto our team of Scholars to answer.

Cleaness is your Faith

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Not that long ago, when Europe was in its Golden Age, civilization, it seemed was at its peak and perfection. It was also during this time of pomp and pageantry, that it was not uncommon for men and women of the aristocracy to wear lice and mouse traps on their bodies, because to immerse oneself bodily into water, (i.e., to take a bath), was deemed unhealthy.

Powdered wigs covered shaved heads due to lice infestations, and heavy perfumes barely covered the pungent smells of unwashed bodies.

Cleanliness had very little to do with that civilization, but it

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has everything to do with ours.

Unfortunately, the Muslims are backtracking to a darker period, when to be clean, in our bodies, our homes, and our communities, was looked upon as a small thing. But as the old saying goes, cleanliness is godliness, and as we profess to be the true worshippers of the One, true God, Allah, then our nation should be the cleanest.

Cleanliness, however, does not stop at the physical level; we must also strive to keep our minds, our hearts and our intentions free from the filth of sin.

It was narrated by Abu Malik alAsh’ari that the Messenger of Allah,

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sallallaahu alayhi wasallam, said, “Cleanliness is half of faith and Alhamdulillah fills the scale, and SubhanaAllah and Alhamdulillah fill up what is between the heavens and the earth. Salah is a light, and charity is proof (of one’s faith) and endurance is a brightness and the Qur’an is a proof on your behalf or against you. All men go out early in the morning and sell themselves, thereby setting themselves free or destroying themselves.” (Muslim).

Here the Prophet of Allah, sallallaahu alayhi wasallam, is telling us that cleanliness is half of faith, therefore it should not be taken lightly. Yet, how many

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Muslim brothers go to the masjids to offer their salahs, and annoy their brothers, their Lord, and His Angels, by not making the proper wudu or ghusl? It is narrated by Abu Hurairah that the Prophet, sallallaahu alayhi wasallam, said, “If I had not found it hard for my followers or the people, I would have ordered them to clean their teeth with siwak for every salah.”

(Bukhari and Muslim).

Keeping our persons clean is very important in this deen, but our level of cleanliness should not be skin deep. Our level of cleanliness needs to go beyond the outer self to touch our minds, our hearts and our souls.

Because there is a lot of filth in societies we line, it is easy to get dirty. Before we know it, all sorts of crazy things are running through our minds and our hearts are occupied with concerns and desires of this worldly life. But Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, “Lo! We purified them with a pure thought, remembrance of the Home (of the Hereafter).” [38:46] The way to keep our minds and our hearts clean is through the

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constant remembrance of Allah and the Home of the Hereafter.

When our minds are full of thikr, there is no room for unclean thoughts. When our hearts are full of dhikr, there is no room for lust, envy and jealousy.

Once we begin to re-emphasize this Sunnah in our lives, we will also see it manifesting itself in our homes and in our communities.

So many so-called Muslim communities and homes are kept in such a way that not even the disbelievers would want to live there. The masjids are filthy, and the areas outside the masajid are littered with paper and garbage, yet this is where we stand and pray.

How can we pray in filth? This is not the way of the Prophet, sallallaahu alayhi wasallam. It was narrated by Aisha, Ummul Mu’minin, that the Apostle of Allah, sallallaahu alayhi wasallam, commanded us to build mosques in different localities (i.e. in the locality of each tribe separately) and that they should be kept clean and be perfumed. (Abu Dawoud).

Sisters, our homes serve as

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our Masjids, they should be clean.

Brothers, if you see paper, pick it up, and know that your reward is with Allah. For Abu Hurairah narrated that a black person, a male or a female used to clean the Mosque and then died.

The Prophet, sallallaahu alayhi wasallam, did not know about it.

One day the Prophet remembered him and asked, “What happened to that person?” The people replied, “O Allah’s Apostle, he died.” He said, “Why did you not inform me?” They said, “His story was so and so (i.e., regarded him as insignificant).” He said, “Show me his grave.” He then went to his grave and offered the funeral salah. (Bukhari).

Cleanliness is godliness, for Allah says, “O you who believe!

When you rise up for salah, wash you faces, and your hands up to the elbows, and lightly rub your heads and (wash) your feet up to the ankles. And if you are unclean, purify yourselves ... Allah would not place a burden on you, but He would purify you and would perfect His grace upon you, that you may give thanks.” [5:6]

Islam in Ukraine

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The majority of Muslims in Ukraine are of Crimean Tatars in ethnicity and live in the Crimean peninsula.

History of Muslims in Ukraine In 1676 the Zaporozhian Cossacks still rejected the Turkish Sultan’s claims for suzerainty but in 1711 one of their starshinas, Pylyp Orlyk, became a Muslim.[1]While ethnic Ukrainians are predominantly Orthodox Christians, Muslims have lived primarily in the southern regions of the modern territory of the country, especially in Crimea.

In the 15th century a state known as Crimean Khanate was established by the Crimean Tatars, Turkicspeaking descendants of both Turkic and non-Turkic peoples who had settled in Eastern Europe as early as the 7th century.

The Khanate soon lost its sovereignty and fell under the influence of the Ottoman Empire on behalf of which it was ruled by the local tributary rulers with significant degree of autonomy. In 15th-18th centuries, Crimean Tatars frequently raided Eastern Slavic lands to capture slaves, enslaving an estimated 3 million people, predominantly Ukrainians. The influence of Russia in the area, initially small, was growing slowly and in the late 18th century after the series of the Russo-Turkish Wars the territory was annexed by the

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Russian Empire.

The Crimean Tatars were Sunnis and the Mufti was regarded as the highest religious figure.

All communities were led by and represented before others by local imams.

The Crimean Khan’s palace in Bakhchisaray was the center of Islam in Ukraine for more than 300 yearsThe Crimean Khanate had Bakhchisaray as its capital. In the 18th century, when it was conquered by Russia, there were at least 18 mosques in the capital and several madrassas. The Russian Empire began persecuting the Muslim population and nearly 160,000 Tatars were forced to leave Crimea.

For the Muslims who stayed, there were conflicts in ideology among those who adhered to conservative form of religion, the moderates, and those who subscribed to liberal and Western ideology.

Ukrainian Muslims in the 20th century At the time of the Russian Revolution, Muslims were one third of population of Crimea. Nearly all major cities in Crimea had a significant Muslim population Crimean Muslims were subjected to mass deportation in 1944 when Stalin accused them of collaborating with the Nazi Germany. Nearly

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200,000 Crimean Tatars were deported to Central Asia, mainly Uzbekistan but also to Kazakhstan and some regions of Russian SFSR. The main deportation occurred on May 18, 1944. It is estimated that about 45% of all Crimean Muslims died in 1944–1945 from hunger and disease.[citation needed] The property and territory abandoned by Crimean Tatars were appropriated by the mostly ethnic Russians who were resettled by the Soviet authorities.

This led to demographic changes in Ukraine with huge impact in the future. Although a 1967 Soviet decree removed the charges against Crimean Tatars, the Soviet government did nothing to facilitate their resettlement in Crimea and to make reparations for lost lives and confiscated property.

The repatriation of Crimean tatars to their homeland began only in 1989.

Ukrainian Muslims today Since Ukrainian independence (1991), more Crimean Tatars have returned to Crimea than during Soviet era. The Muslims are divided into various ethnic groups but the majority are of Tatar origin, of one particular clan or other. There have also been settlement by Chechen refugees in Crimea and other parts of Ukraine but the proportion is not significant.

Most Ukrainian Muslims affiliate to these organizations which help

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I August 2009

them join mainstream Islamic as well as Ukrainian daily life. Most Muslims have been trying to form a party to have a united voice in Politics, a socalled Muslim Congress, but so far it has not been achieved. Muslims have formed several charitable organizations helping both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities. These mainly include CAAR Foundation, AlBushra, and Life after Chornobyl.

There is also the Interregional Association of Public Organizations, Arraid which has often gained world attention due to its dedication.

Muslims in Ukraine have 391 communities, 372 ministers, 151 mosques with 6 more mosques being built.

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According to latest surveys, there are 0.3 million Muslims in Ukraine.

This makes them 0.65% of total population. In Crimea the Ukrainian Muslims make up to 12% of the population.

At least 30 Ukrainian Muslim communities work without official registration (there are nearly 360 registered communities or organizations).

Others groups include Chechens or Caucasian immigrants or settlers, as well as a few Afghans. Major languages are Tatar, Turkish and Caucasian languages such as Chechen or Avar.

But all communities speak Russian and many also speak the Ukrainian

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language.

Ukrainian translation of the Qur’an and Sunnah A few attempts to render the Holy Book of Islam into Ukrainian were processed during the last centuries. Since the first non-direct (source?) translation of AbranchakLysynecki (Lviv, 1915), few partial translations were published (Yarema Polotniuk - Vsesvit Journal, 1990), Valeriy Rybalkin (“Stylos”, 2002) and Mykhaylo Yakubovych (Kyivska Rus Journal, 2007). Among the large Sunnah corpus the only translation of “Forthy hadeeth an-Nawawe” is known (Alexandria, 2006, by M. Yakubovych).

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CORRESPONDENCE

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emailbox - comments Thank you for sending me the new publication, found it very informative and educational Klein Dane Chelsea, London

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Beautiful Salaat

Nicely done publication, I am a evangelist and would like to create a similar publication in a similar style for the Christian community, I was wondering if you would be able to help us create it, design, layout etc, look forward to hearing from you Emily Hebden, Yorkshire Good issue once again, as usual very good articles inside, look forward to it each month, like to invite everyone at Passion Islam to come over here.

Anand Slovakia

Sent in by Mikhael, Denmark

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Excellent news stories, it is always really good to see a magazine which exposes stories which are over shadowed in the mainstream press, keep up the good work, Andrea Dublin, Ireland Can you please email me the publication rather than sending the whole publication as we don’t have much bandwidth here, thank you, it is very good paper.

Sabiha Delhi, India Now its even easy to contact us, see our contact us form on our website www.passionislam.com Wishing u 1 month of ramadan, 4 weeks of barkat, 30 days of forgiveness, 720 hours of guidance, 43200 minutes of purification, 2592000 secs of Nuur..!!

Ramadan Mubarak Sent in by Aisha R, Switzerland

God can reach each falling tears.

He sees the heart that needs a cheer.

He knows the path that’s hard and dear...

Don’t ever give up coz He is near.

Sent by Nisha, UK