PassionIslam February 2010

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‘Prevent has Issue: 23

February 2010

Failed us’ British values are under threat because the government’s attempt to combat terrorism has left whole communities “stigmatised”, the National Association of Muslim Police has told MPs. The Prevent strategy, designed to stop radicalisation, focuses too much on Islamic extremism rather than the threat posed by the far right, claims the association, which represents

more than 2,000 police officers.

“Never before has a community been mapped in a manner and nor will it be,” the association said in evidence to a Commons select committee on the strategy, known as Preventing Violent Extremism. “It is frustrating to see this in a country that is a real pillar and example of freedom of expression and choice.

“Our British system is a model

for the world to follow, yet we have embarked on a journey that has put this very core of British values under real threat.”

It added: “The hatred towards Muslims has grown to a level that defies all logic and is an affront to British values. The climate is such that Muslims are subject to daily abuse in a manner that would be ridiculed by Britain, were this to occur anywhere

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By Majed Iqbal

Are Pakistani Rock Stars ‘Radicalising’ the Nation?

America’s increased presence in Pakistan as a political and military force under it’s Af-Pak been an issue of concern for both Pakistanis and the American administration.

Pakistan is a country which has been marred by bloodshed and violence with immediate blame falling on the ‘militants’.

America has upped its game in recent months to present themselves as the saviour for the country against the devilish forces of the militants.

Hillary Clinton’s visit in October last year was aimed at justifying their presence in the region in a bid to win the hearts and minds of the ordinary Pakistani to support and endorse America’s vision for the region.

However, Clinton’s visit was was met with protests, anger and frustration as Pakistanis voiced objection to American plans. She failed miserably to do this but pledged continued American ‘Support’ for the nation.

In Similar style, America has sought to re-work its image in Pakistan by laying the entire blame on the Taliban for the countries problems. Allegations have been made that the security services are helping Islamists, or factions in the army are inclined towards Islam or that Nuclear Arsenal can fall into the hands of militants.

In the midst of this, a new, fresh, and un-predicted, allegation has now been made that Pakistani Rock stars are radicalising Pakistani Youth.

Adam B Ellick, a journalist for the New York Times writes in his article “Pakistan Rock Rails Against the West, Not the Taliban” that “While Pakistani journalists, playwrights and even moderate Islamic clerics have boldly condemned the Taliban, the nation’s pop music stars have yet to sing out against the group (Taliban)”.

A video available on the New York Times website shows interviews with a range of singers from Pakistan.

The narrator states that “Pakistani

pop musicians are propelling antiAmerican messages” and that “Whilst the politicised songs highlight many of Pakistan woes like corruption and poverty, they also condemn America for meddling in the region.”

“The lyrics reflect widespread views among their young educated fans who say Pakistan’s problem is the West, not the Taliban” states journalist New York Times journalist Adam in the video.

Ali Azmat, one of Pakistan’s leading Iconic Rock Stars is criticised heavily for his latest Track “Tanha hai Kyoon” from his Album Klashinfolk which the author claims “emits a stream of anti-western views”.

Primarily known for his love songs, the author states that “like many pop stars he (Ali Azmat) has changed his tune”.

Made in a retro style collage of video footage and images, the video draws viewers attention on the miseries of corporate America, freedom struggles in troubled regions meddled in by America, Capitalism and War on Terror. The video continuously displays titles questioning the viewer like “Glorified lies?”, “Universal Truth?”, “Slavery “War-Profit” and displays images of destruction, a world full of Weapons and references to last years Gaza onslaught by Israeli forces.

“Would you sing a song about how 200 girl’s schools were blown up?” asks the journalist in a video interview “You can’t blame Taliban for that.

Where do you think the funding is coming from? It is the agenda of the neo-cons to de-islamise Pakistan” replies a confident Azmat The last year has seen heavy casualties across the country with attacks taking place in major cities. For musicians, their work has suffered as a consequence as security has been a major concern. No Live concerts have meant resorting to television

appearances, affecting their revenue heavily.

The New York Times journalist uses this opportunity to ask how musicians should respond to people who are damaging their musical lifestyle.

Noori, a popular rock band are questioned if they would sing against the Taliban.

“First of all it is the West against the Taliban’s, they are heavily affected by it, were not! We are not going to get up and talk about the Taliban as this is probably the smallest problem this country has” speaks out band member Ali Noor.

Shezad Roy, a famous Pop Star is next in the line of attack. The video narration rolls stating “As the United states bids for the heart and minds in Pakistan, Pop culture is blaming America for everything, from torturing Muslims to Drone attacks on Pakistani soil”.

This is referred to his song “Qismat apnay Haath mein” on Guantanamo where questions on Justice, being Muslim, torture and living in the age of America’s War on Terror are all raised.

Obama’s election was seen as a new turn for America to fix its damaged international image.

Yet in the first month of Obama’s administration the numbers of Drone attacks in Pakistan were more than what former President George Bush used in his two terms in the region.

The hailers of Freedom and Democracy are now being challenged by a handful of musicians who are using their backgrounds to voice their opinions on current events. But it seems that notions of Freedom and Democracy are terms used synonymously with American interests.

In this case, the American administration will not be pleased as they continue to loose the battle to win the hearts and minds of the Pakistani nation.

Write to: Editor, Passion Islam, PO Box 159, Batley, West Yorkshire, WF17 1AD or email: info@passionislam.com - www.passionislam.com This Magazine contains Ayaat of the Qur’an and Hadith of the Prophet (SAW), please ensure you handle it with respect & care - Sukran -

Views expressed in the Passion column are of the contributers and not Necessarily of Passion Islam

I February 2010

UK plans fund to ‘help’ Taliban defectors

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Taliban fighters lay down their weapons as they surrender to the government of Herat Province in western Afghanistan.

The British government has suggested setting up an international trust fund to donate money to those Taliban militants who voluntarily lay down their arms.

According to the The Guardian newspaper, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told UK lawmakers that he hoped the upcoming London conference would agree to what he called a “reintegration program” to

help the Kabul government offer a way out of violence for Afghans who had joined the Taliban, but were not committed to its ideology and could be encouraged to return to civilian life.

“The insurgency is not a monolith; it comprises many different groups which have, to a greater or lesser extent, co-opted foreign fighters, local tribes, those who are involved in the drug trade and mercenary fighters paid as little as $10 a day,” he said.

He made it clear that tackling corruption in Afghanistan will also be

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high on the agenda of the conference.

Miliband warned that with the Taliban installing shadow governors and courts “the Afghan authorities need to guard against not just being outgunned but also being outgoverned.” British and US diplomats and intelligence officers have been approaching Taliban commanders that are considered “reconcilable”.

Speaking at a news conference Miliband said that efforts are also underway to encourage local poppy growers to grow wheat. passionislam.com

UK’s anti-terrorism legislation censured

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In a unanimous ruling, the European Court of Human Rights condemns Britain’s anti-terrorism legislation arguing that it disrespects the private life of an individual.

All the seven judges censuring the UK legislation said that police searches, without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, breach the complainants’ right to their private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, its statement said.

That the police are empowered to search the person’s clothing and personal belongings, and having

personal information exposed to public view, amounts to a clear interference and could also cause “humiliation and embarrassment” to the individual, noted the statement.

Between 2004 and 2008, over 117,000 searches were recorded by the British Ministry of Justice, said the Human Rights Court.

Reacting to the ruling, London’s Metropolitan Police said that while the British government is seeking to appeal the ruling, Section 44 “remains in force in specified locations across London.”

Section 44 states that an individual

can be “stopped anywhere and at any time, without notice and without any choice as to whether or not to submit to a search.”

The judges rejected the government’s argument that the searches were the same as those of travelers at airports.

Observers have reported that the US and Britain have been violating their own constitutional laws on basic human rights under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Muslim citizens have been the prime targets of such legalized human rights violations. passionislam.com

Britain has restored the terror threat level facing the country to ‘severe,’ indicating that an attack is ‘highly likely.’

The decision made from an analysis by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) comes before an international conference on Afghanistan is being hosted in London, when there will also be discussions on the threat of terrorism in Yemen.

Announcing the decision, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the level had not been raised to ‘critical’, the highest, and stressed there was no intelligence to suggest a terrorist attack was imminent.

“We never say what the intelligence is.” Johnson said. “It shouldn’t be thought to be linked to Detroit or anywhere else for that matter.”

He said that there was “a real and serious threat to the UK from international terrorism” and urged the public to “remain vigilant and carry on reporting suspicious events to the appropriate authorities and to support the police and security services in their continuing efforts to discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity.”

Severe is the fourth highest of five levels. The threat was reduced

to the third level ‘substantial’ last July for the first time in four years. The previous time it was lowered was just two months before the 7/7 London bombings in 2005.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that “a number of terrorist cells are actively trying to attack Britain and other countries,” when announcing a suspension of flights to Yemen and

the setting up of a new ‘watch list.’

The alleged bombing plot at Detroit on Christmas signalled “the first operation mounted outside Arabia by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”

Nigerian national Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab, who was arrested, was reported to have told his FBI interrogators that up to 20 “more like me” may be preparing further attacks.

UK raises terror threat

Government extends ban on Muslim groups

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The British government announced Tuesday that it extends its list of Muslim groups outlawed for the “glorification” of terrorism even though they are not known to be involved in the use of violence.

“I have today laid an order which will proscribe al-Muhajiroun, Islam4UK, and a number of the other names the organisation goes by,” Home Secretary Alan Johnson said.

Other names used by the group, which calls for the implantation of Sharia laws in the UK, are believed to include Call to Submission, Islamic Path and London School of Sharia.

Under the Terrorism Act 2000,

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groups were proscribed if they commit or participate in acts of terrorism, prepare for terrorism, promote or encourage terrorism or are otherwise concerned in terrorism.

But in 2006, al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect or the Saviour Sect, associated with al-Muhajiroun, became the first to be banned under extended powers that include organisations that are deemed to “glorify the commission or preparation of acts of terrorism.”

“Glorification includes any form of praise or celebration of acts of terrorism. We are therefore now able to take action against those who

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make statements that most rightminded people find abhorrent and who create a climate that supports and fuels terrorism,” Security Minister Tony McNulty said at the time.

The extension comes after Islam4UK last week controversially proposed march through a town in southern England used for the repatriation of UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan to highlight the thousands of Muslim civilian killed in the war.

Responding to the ban, Islam4UK spokesman Anjem Choudary challenge anyone to “authentically prove that any of our members have been involved in any violent activities or promoting violent activities or asking anyone to carry out any sort of military operations.”

“We are always at pains to stress that we are an ideological and political organisation,” Choudary said in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“What the people will see is if you don’t agree with the government and you want to expose their foreign policy, then freedom quickly dissipates and turns into dictatorship,” he said.

The banning order is now effected and will make it a criminal offence to be a member, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. passionislam.com

Ethnic minorities no longer disadvantaged People from ethnic minorities are no longer automatically disadvantaged in modern Britain, Communities Secretary John Denham has declared.

Although racism still exists, progress on promoting race equality in the last decade helped to create a society that is more comfortable with diversity than ever before, he was saying, according to the minister’s remarks released officially here.

Simple assumptions linking race to disadvantage are outdated, he was pointing out, with people just as likely to be held back by poverty and lack of opportunity.

In a speech to launch a review of government policy on race, Denham

was pledging support to tackle inequality in white working class areas as well as in ethnic minority communities.

He was saying: “The Government has an absolute commitment to eradicating racism and promoting race equality. And that work will not stop until every single person in this country has the same opportunities and an equal chance of success.

“Sustained action over the last 10 years has promoted racial equality and better race relations, dismantled unfair barriers faced by many and helped to nurture a society more comfortable with diversity than ever before.

“New trends are emerging linked to

the way that race and class together shape people’s lives and this makes the situation much more complex.

That does not mean that we should reduce our efforts to tackle racism and promote race equality but we must avoid a one dimensional debate that assumes all minority ethnic people are disadvantaged.

“The landscape has changed and we have to make sure that our efforts are tackling problems of today and not those of the past”, the minister was adding.

Britain has become a multi-racial country in the last two decades, with the increase of communities from ethnic minorities, commentators said. passionislam.com

UK stop and search powers illegal Passion Islam

I February 2010

Powers given to police under Britain’s terrorism laws to stop and search people without grounds for suspicion are illegal, the European Court of Human Rights ruled.

The Strasbourg court said that the emergency powers violated article eight of the European convention on human rights, regarding the right to privacy.

The case, which involved two people stopped outside a protest demonstration near a London arms fair in 2003, is seen as a blow to the government’s policy on combating the threat of terrorism.

The powers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 have already proved controversial in Britain for disproportionately targeting Muslims.

The excessive use of stopping tens of thousands has also been widely criticised for its very low success rate in leading to arrests and convictions.

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The European Court awarded Kevin Gillan, a student from Sheffield, northern England, and Pennie Quinton, a freelance photo journalist, 33,850 euros (£30,400) to cover their legal costs.

It ruled that the stop and search powers were “not sufficiently circumscribed” and there were not “adequate legal safeguards against abuse”.

It also concluded that “the risks of the discriminatory use of the powers” were “a very real consideration”.

The decision overturns a 2003 High Court ruling in Britain, which was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords that the use of stop and search was proportionate under the European Convention on Human Rights and justified in the light of the threat of terrorism. passionislam.com

University head to tackle extremism University leaders are to examine how to tackle violent extremism on campus without damaging academic freedom.

A working group of university chiefs is to be set up, headed by University College London provost, Malcolm Grant.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused of attempting to blow up a plane flying to the United States, was a former student of the London university.

Universities UK president, Steve Smith, said there had to be a balance between security and freedom of speech.

“It is essential that as a society we respond rationally to the issue of extremism,” said Professor Smith.

The working group, which will be formed from university vicechancellors and other academics, will consider how to achieve the balancing act of preventing campus extremism without undermining the right for students and staff to hold free debates.

The group will “consider how universities can work with all relevant organisations, nationally and locally, to ensure the protection of freedom of speech and lawful academic activities, whilst safeguarding students, staff and the wider community from violent extremism”.

In seeking to find out how Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been radicalised, there had been scrutiny of his time as an undergraduate at UCL between 2005 and 2008, when he had studied engineering and business finance.

Professor Grant has rejected claims that this radicalisation took place at the university and has warned that there is a “narrow line” to be walked between tackling extremism and protecting a free exchange of views.

A spokesman for Universities UK says the working group will seek to reconcile these two pressures.

Among the issues to be considered will be invitations to outside speakers and whether controversial views

should be banned.

While universities can act to stop illegal speeches - such as those which could incite racial hatred it can be more difficult for universities to decide whether to allow opinions to be aired which might offend, without breaking the law.

There are also questions about the extent to which universities should be expected to monitor such events which might be small gatherings of students.

Another area of concern has been the right of academics to explore controversial areas, such as terrorism and groups holding extreme views.

This could include questions over academics visiting the websites of extremist groups.

University staff have previously been called upon to help tackle extremism and to monitor students causing concern.

But this had been strongly rejected by the UCU lecturers’ union as an unacceptable request to spy on their students.

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Britain uses coercion to recruit Muslim ‘spies’ Amid stepped up security following the bombing attempt in the US, Britain’s Security Service, the MI5, faces accusations of trying to force vulnerable Muslim citizens into espionage.

A report by The Independent criticized the spy agency for tactics bordering on blackmail and harassment and targeting helpless Muslims.

The paper cites the cases of two Somali immigrants to Britain, whom detail a series of threatening encounters with MI5 agents. It also hints at a pattern of such harassments targeting Somali nationals, citing five similar claims made in 2009.

The United Sates and Britain have been pushing for more UN intervention to tackle what they call an emerging terrorist threat in Somalia, in wake of

a failed attempt to bomb a Detroitbound plane from Nigeria and a similar attack launched from Somalia.

The security service, however, has intensified its covert operations against Britain’s Somali and Yemeni communities since 2008 over concerns that UK citizens are being recruited by ‘al-Qaeda’ terrorist organization.

Isahaq Elmi, 31, who complains of having received at least 200 phone calls, is a man who sought refuge in Britain from certain persecution in Africa where members of his family were murdered.

Elmi says he was also tricked into attending meetings at police stations in Birmingham amid measures to coerce him into working for the security service.

Ahmed Diini, a Dutch citizen of Somali origin who has settled in

Britain, said harassments did not stop at threatening phone calls and visits by agents to his place of work — a school in Birmingham — and that he was twice detained at UK airports while trying to go on holiday.

The 21-year-old alleges that men who claimed to be MI5 agents tried to put pressure on him with threats of detention under the Terrorism Act. British Muslim groups have slammed the “alienating” and heavyhanded tactics, as well as casting doubt on the quality and reliability of a forced spying operation.

The attempt to blow up a USbound airliner by a Nigerian man who spent time in Yemen and a suspected similar attack launched from Somalia has increased MI5’s interest in British residents with links to both states. passionislam.com

British Muslims tortured in Yemen A group of British Muslims claims being detained and tortured in Yemen’s infamous prisons, suggesting the involvement of British intelligence because the interrogations focused on associates and mosques back in London.

“On the first night I was ordered out of the cell and taken to a small courtyard,” Shajed Askor, a 26year-old web developer, told The Guardian.

“Then the guards started beating me around the head and body with sticks and bars. It went on for about 20 minutes. Some of the guards seemed to be high on drugs.”

Askor was among a group of four young British Muslims detained last month while traveling in Yemen to enroll in an Arabic language institute.

They claim to have been dragged off a bus outside the capital, Sana’a, and held for almost five weeks.

They were handcuffed, forced to kneel

for several hours and taken away to be questioned one at a time.

“They were asking me where Bin Laden’s hideouts were,” recalled Alam Mottakin, a student from northern London.

“They kept asking the same question again and again: ‘Which group are you working with?’”

After five days, the four were seen by a British consular official who indicated they would be released within an hour.

Instead they were transferred to a prison run by Yemen’s intelligence agencies, where they were detained, beaten, deprived of sleep and questioned for four weeks. The torture episodes reportedly continued until the days the four were released without charge and deported.

Britain’s Foreign Office says the four Muslims were arrested by Yemeni authorities for traveling to an area which they did not have permission to

enter.

“On their return to the UK, families of three individuals told The Guardian.

“But the men and their families are actually pointing an accusation finger at the British intelligence, citing some of the questions they were asked.

They were grilled about their associates in Britain and ordered to write a list of mosques that they attended back home.

They were even asked to describe those mosques and some of the people who pray there.

“We are not in a position to comment on the questions the Yemeni authorities may or may not have asked them,” the Foreign Office spokesman said.”

Lawyers for eight former Guantanamo detainees are suing the British government and intelligence for involvement in their abduction and extradition to the US and Pakistan.

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else.”

The comments are contained in a memorandum to the committee stating that the growth of the far right and its ability to carry out terror acts should not be underestimated: “All forms of violent extremism – rightwing, separatist, so-called Islamist, green issues … need to be addressed as opposed to the current Prevent focus on Islam.”

There was a sense of frustration among Muslims and “some serious damage” may already have been done, it said.

The government’s anti-terrorism policies could not “continue unchecked”, said the memorandum, and more thorough research should have been done before any consideration was given to the Prevent strategy being formulated. The result, it said, was a rise in Islamophobia.

The association said the evidence showed “we deal with so-called Islamist extremists as being terrorist, whilst the right wing and separatist are dealt with as being extremist – hence facing lesser legal action.

“It can be argued that there is a

connection in the rise of Islamophobia and our Prevent programme, as it feeds on the stereotypes that the media and some rightwing parties promote, ie that all Muslims are evil and non trustworthy.”

The comments are embarrassing for Gordon Brown, who has said the association is crucial to bridge the divide between Muslims and the police. It is thought to be the first time that the association, founded in 2007, has criticised government policy. The association believes the government is wrong to blame Islam as the main driver of terrorist activity.

Research from interviews with those convicted of terrorist acts “shows Islam was not, and is not, a real driver – but all our strategy seem to focus on is this un-evidenced view

of Islam being the driver,” they said Furthermore an event organised

by Indian Muslim Welfare Society this month in Batley saw guest speaker Arun Kundnani author of Spooked ripped apart the prevent strategy and delivered a damning account of failings within it.

The event also had representative from West Yorkshire Police and Kirklees Council who holds the funding on prevent when asked about prevent strategy the audience were given unconvincing answers by both organisations When asked what is the prevent money being used for, Kirklees community cohesion representative said “we don’t use all the money on prevent we also use it on other things.”

Church attendance continues to fall in UK Attendances at Church of England churches have continued to decline, despite initiatives such as Back to Church Sunday, and increasing numbers at Christian festivals such as Easter and Christmas.

New figures show that 1.7 million people, just under 3% of the UK population, continue to attend services each month at state-established churches in 2008, some one per cent less that the previous year and five per cent lower than 2001.

Around 1.1 million – less than 2% of the population – went to church as part of a typical week – and not just on a Sunday, according to counts taken by 9 in 10 of all 16,000 Church of England, in a survey carried out by the Research and Statistics Department of the Archbishops’ Council.

The Revd Lynda Barley, the Church of England’s Head of Research and Statistics, played down the continuing decline, suggesting that the figures did not give the complete picture.

“The figures released today, covering regular local church attendees, give an important but inevitably partial snapshot of today’s Church” Barley said.

“It is important to see these trends in the context of wider changes in a society where fewer people are willing to join and take part in membership organizations,’” she said.

Comparative examples were the 40 per cent fall in the membership of political parties in recent years.

“Even in a General Election year, almost double the number of members of the three main political parties taken together will attend a Church of England parish church on Sunday,” Barley argued.

The figures also showed the number of marriages taking place in parish churches falling by three per cent, a two per cent drop in the number of ‘infant’ baptisms and a five per cent fall in the number of Thanksgivings for the birth of a child.

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UK role in Iraqi grandmother’s torture being probed

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Britain’s military police are investigating allegations that British troops tortured and killed a 62-yearold Iraqi woman in 2006.

Reports form an investigation

by Iraqi Lieutenant Haidar Yashaa Salman from Al-Qibla police station concludes that Sabiha Khudur Talib’s body was dumped on a roadside in a British body bag in November 2006.

“I saw the body in a brown dishdash [one-piece tunic], bare feet and hands with marks of handcuffs. I saw traces of torture on the body of the victim. I saw a non-penetrated bullet entry in the abdomen,” the Lieutenant said in his report.

The findings are consistent with the family’s claims who say the 62 grandmother had been led away alive

by British soldiers. The Ministry of defense, however, says that Mrs. Talib had been caught in crossfire during the raid and died later in a military hospital.

The military has not been able to identify the hospital she was treated at or to whom her body was handed.

Lawyers for the family who are preparing for legal action in the High Court in London against the MoD, say the house was raided in the early

hours and that the family thought their home was being attacked by criminals.

Soldiers began firing into the house for 20 minutes, killing one of the victim’s sons, they say. They later entered the house taking Mrs. Talib with them “hit her on her back with a rifle butt” and “shoved her into the vehicle.”

They next saw their mother in a body bag dumped in a highway.

Lawyers for the family have demanded a full inquiry into the November 2006 incident, adding that they are preparing legal action in the

Dr Mohammed Asha, who was acquitted of terrorism charges following the Glasgow airport bombing, is suing News Group Newspapers for libel.

Asha is demanding damages for alleged libel and invasion of privacy over two stories that appeared in The Sun which revealed he was working in an NHS casualty ward under his middle name, Dr Jamil.

According to a writ filed at the High Court by lawyers working for Asha, he believed one story that appeared on 10 August last year headed: “Terror case doc works in casualty” claimed there were very strong grounds to suspect that he will be involved in terrorist bomb plots in future and is an ongoing threat to national security.

Dr Asha says the stories and pictures seriously harmed his personal and

professional reputations, and left him acutely distressed and traumatised.

Thee newspaper story, and a website version, included pictures of him taken covertly on hospital property, he says.

As a result of the danger created by stories, he says, he was offered police protection and the hospital had to ensure he was not the sole doctor on duty at night because of his fear of being attacked at work.

According to the writ, Dr Asha claims he was also asked to leave his rented flat and could no longer live in Shrewsbury because of fears for his safety.

He also claimed his neurosurgery training programme had been disrupted after three hospitals were reluctant to employ him.

High Court against the MoD. “The possibility that British forces in 2006 could have tortured and executed an innocent elderly woman should shock the nation,” Phil Shiner, the attorney representing the Iraqis, told The Independent on Monday.

It is one of the most serious charges levied against the British Army during its six-year occupation in southern Iraq.

The case is one of 47 accusations of rape, torture and physical assault made by Iraqis against British troops which are being investigated by the MoD.

Sun sued over ‘Terror case’ story

Dr Asha says The Sun declined to name the new location of an Al-Qaeda suspect who had been deported, but revealed his whereabouts with a reckless indifference to his wellbeing. ews Group Newspapers has refused to respond to his claim, he says.

Asha, who now lives in Kings Heath, Birmingham, is seeking aggravated damages for libel and misuse of private information and an injunction banning repetition of the allegations at the centre of his claim.

He is also seeking special damages which he says result from the stories.

This includes increased rent of £325 a month, increases in utility bills, travel costs of £420 a month, £2,100 for a car, and salary losses of around £300 a month.

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Over 80 MPs oppose changing law for Israeli war criminals

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The British government is in a dilemma over plans to restrict the arrest of Israeli leaders for alleged war crime with more than 80 MPs declaring their opposition to any changes to the UK law.

So far, 86 MPs have signed an Early Day Motion to parliament, warning that they would vote against any legislation to limit the power of courts to issue warrants for human rights abusers under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Universal jurisdiction, which allows arrests wherever crimes are committed, is as “essential as part of the cause of bringing to justice those who commit crimes against humanity,” the motion said, according to a copy seen by IRNA. separate resolution, supported by 10 MPs, further warns that any proposed changes to UK legislation “would compromise the UK’s obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention to seek out and prosecute persons suspected of war crimes.”

Last month, the British government pledged to alter the law after apologising to Israel when a warrant was issued for the arrest of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni over her role in the latest Gaza massacres, forcing her to cancel a visit to the UK. According to the Jewish Chronicle, Justice Minister Jack Straw was due to present proposals to parliament to alter the law, but then reported it had

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been delayed with the Foreign Office citing “technical difficulties.”

The problem for the government is that it has a working majority of only 63 MPs and would need the support of opposition Conservatives to force legislative changes through the House of Commons.

The arrest of Israeli military and political leaders has become easier following the UN-sponsored Goldstone report on the extent of war crimes committed in Gaza as it is an evidential document in British jurisdiction.

The apparent change in the law is to require any arrests to be approved by the attorney general, who is also a cabinet minister, but this has led to

charges of political interference.

Human rights groups have accused the British government of seeking to avoid its responsibility to uphold international law and bring war criminals to justice.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has also warned that Britain was jeopardising its international reputation by interfering in the law to prevent Israeli leaders being arrested.

“Law in our legal system is the same for all – friend or foe. Your proposed step will treat ‘political friends’ differently and indeed more favourably than those who may face same allegations but for whom a different process will apply,” said MCB secretary general Abdul Bari.

Government restores links with MCB British Ministers have restored official ties with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) which were severed after a senior council member was accused of supporting attacks on British soldiers.

John Denham, the Communities Secretary, has made the decision after the MCB, Britain’s leading Muslim group, stated its opposition to violence.

Links were severed in March last year when it emerged that deputy secretary-general Dr Daud Abdullah had signed a public declaration of support for Palestinian group Hamas.

The Istanbul declaration document appeared to advocate attacks on the

Navy if it stopped arms intended for Hamas being smuggled into Gaza.

Ties were cut by Denham’s predecessor Hazel Blears, who said she was also concerned the document called for attacks on Jews and their supporters.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said the MCB had stated its “categorical” opposition to attacks on British troops.

He said: “The Muslim Council of Britain has made a commitment to Government to examine their internal processes and ensure that the personal actions of all members, including senior leaders, remain true

to the organisation’s agreed policies, avoiding a repeat of the issues which arose after one member signed the Istanbul Declaration.

“The MCB has stated its categorical opposition to attacks on British defence interests and confirmed its unwavering support for British troops across the world.

“It has also made clear that it stands firmly against anti-Semitism and other forms of racism.

“The significance of these actions on the part of the MCB has led to the Government lifting the suspension of its formal relationship with that organisation. passionislam.com

US court urged to dismiss Guantanamo case Passion Islam

I February 2010

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The criminal case against the first detainee transferred from Guantanamo Bay for trial in a U.S. civilian court should be thrown out because he was denied the right to a speedy trial, defense lawyers have argued.

The government countered that the prosecution of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani a Tanzanian national charged for his alleged role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya was delayed for a legitimate reason: gathering high-value intelligence from Ghailani during interrogations.

The prosecution described its national security needs as “weightier, more significant” than a speedy trial demands.

The case is being watched for precedents that could affect others, including that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, who is also due to be tried in Manhattan federal court.

Ghailani was taken into custody in Pakistan in July 2004 and interrogated outside the United States as part of the Bush administration’s secret “extraordinary rendition” program under which terrorism suspects were captured in one country and interrogated in another at secret CIA “black sites”.

He was transferred to Guantanamo

Bay in 2006 and his case was moved to Manhattan federal court last June.

In oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, lawyers for Ghailani said the “political decision” to put off a trial while he was interrogated should not mean he gives up his rights under the U.S Constitution.

The government “clearly chose to ignore his Constitutional rights and instead chose to transform him from an accused defendant to an intelligence asset and relegated him to a modern-day gulag,” said defense lawyer Peter Quijano.

But assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Farbiarz said the burden of proof for the case to be thrown out lies with the defense and Ghailani had failed to demand a speedy trial while held at Guantanamo Bay.

“The government is not trying to gain an advantage over the defendant at trial,” but to “incapacitate others” and pursue “third parties,” said Farbiarz.

“I think everybody can agree that whatever I do here would be unprecedented,” the judge said, alluding to the importance of the proceeding, which coincided with the anniversary of the first group of 20 detainees being brought to Guantanamo Bay’s Camp X-Ray in 2002.

Lawyers were barred from discussing Ghailani’s interrogations.

But at one point, Quijano said “enhanced interrogation techniques” were used on Ghailani during a five-day period.” That term is commonly used to describe simulated drowning and other methods of torture.

“For the first two months in the black site..., he literally did not know whether the next morning he’d be taken out and shot,” attorney Peter Quijano told federal Judge Lewis Kaplan.

The treatment “reduced him to a state of helplessness, where he was physically, emotionally and psychologically unable to resist.”

Farbiarz then approached Quijano, who indicated he would not say any more on the subject.

A Bangladeshi taxi driver in New York City has gone out of his way to track down the person who left thousands of dollars in cash in the back of his cab.

Mukul Asadujjaman, a medical student, drove nearly 80kms (50 miles) to an address he found with the money.

He left his phone number when he found no one at home. The money belonged to an Italian grandmother visiting the US. Mr Asadujjaman was offered a reward, but he turned it down saying that

as a devout Muslim he could not accept it.

Felicia Lettieri, 72 of Pompeii, Italy, and six relatives had taken two cabs on Christmas Eve and left her purse behind, with more than $21,000 of the group’s travelling money, jewellery worth thousands more, and some of their passports.

Her sister, Francesca Lettieri, 79, of Long Island, said the honest driver had saved her family’s vacation.

Asked if he was tempted to keep the

cash, Mr Asadujjaman said the money would have allowed him more time to study, “but my heart said this is not good”.

“I’m needy, but I’m not greedy,” he said. “It’s better to be honest.”

Mr Asadujjaman is not the first honest American-Bangladeshi cabbie to hit the headlines for noble behaviour.

In 2007, driver Osman Chowdhury returned a lost bag containing diamond rings worth $500,000 to the rightful owner.

Bangladeshi cabbie in NY returns cash left in taxi

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EX-Pakistani minister condemns US security checks

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Former Pakistani Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman has condemned the new set of screening regulations by the US Transportation Security Administration.

The guidelines, issued following

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a failed terrorist bid on a US airline on Christmas Eve, classify the citizens of Pakistan as one of the 14 nations subjected to special scrutiny including pat-down searches and inspection of all their belongings.

While submitting an adjournment motion on the subject for debate in the National Assembly, Sherry Rehman said that these regulations not only violate fundamental human entitlements and right to privacy, these would also cause discomfort to the US-bound passengers.

“The new set of security regulations are discretionary and unfair as well as counterproductive. They also violate Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that prevents “distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

MNA Sherry Rehman questioned the US move to classify Pakistan as part of the “countries of interest” when the person accused of plotting to blow up US-bound airline from Amsterdam was neither of Pakistani origin, nor did he

Chinese Halal Market seen as source of rich potential Thai exporters are being urged to tap into China’s expanding Muslim food market.

“China is one of the world’s most eyecatching halal food markets, as Muslims there total more than 30 million, or 2.3% of China’s population,” said Srirat Rastapana, directorgeneral of the Export Promotion Department.

“Demand for halal food is rapidly growing in Ningxia and Gansu provinces and in Inner Mongolia.”

The world’s Muslim population is about two billion or 29% of the total. Muslim consumers total 8 million in North America, 18 million in Europe, and 200 million in Indonesia.

The global halal market was estimated to be worth $547 billion in 2009 and is expected to grow to more than $550 billion in 2010, said Mrs Srirat.

Thailand is the fifth-largest halal food exporter, controlling a 5.6% market share.

In 2008, Thai halal exports were worth 5.19 billion baht, up 53.3% from 2007.

The Thai government aims to expand halal food exports by at least 10% a year between 2010 and 2014, helped by new strategies to

drive the development of products for Muslim markets.

A panel on halal industry development, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu, approved strategies to develop the industry last year. They include meeting world halal standards and conforming to domestic demand, promoting the competitiveness of both entrepreneurs and workers in the industry, increasing Thailand’s capability in certifying food as halal, and expanding markets and upgrading research and development.

The targeted products are vegetables, fruit, fishery and livestock products and tourism and health care services. The strategy calls for the five southern provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Satun and Songkhla to become the production base for halal products.

The department will also focus on health by promoting rice, fruit and organic halal food.

It is also poised to support the opening of halal food outlets and non-food business such as halal hotels, halal hospitals and halal logistics services, she said.

have any links with Pakistan.

She said the latest US security measures are an insult for a nation that has suffered for a decade at the hands of terrorists as well as because of the noncooperation of our allies to back us in our fight against terrorism.”

Sherry Rehman warned that the latest security measures by the US amount to racial profiling and will only deepen the existing divide between Muslim and nonMuslim countries.

“These steps will contribute towards growing Muslim resentment against US policies across the globe. It is also important to note that the earlier failed attacks on international airlines were carried out by the citizens of Britain and other European countries. The regulations not only unjustifiably cause discomfort to innocent passengers, they also allow space for terrorists to manipulate their way to carry out further acts of terrorism.

Sherry Rehman said that the failed attempt on the Christmas Eve exposed the vulnerabilities in the US surveillance system.

Muslim appointed as Judge in Brazil Mohammad Ali Madhlum, a Brazilian Muslim of Lebanese origin was appointed as federal judge of the country.

According to ucide, this is the first time in the history of Brazil that a Muslim is selected as a federal judge.

“It is quite an achievement as it was very difficult to gain such a status in a country where most of the people are Christian,” Mr. Madhlum says.

Some two million Muslims live in Latin America making up 1.5 percent of the region’s population.

Born in Lebanon, Mohammad Ali Madhlum moved to Brazil with his family in 1959 and continued his studies in law while also conducting research in Islamic sciences.

He graduated in law from Sao Paulo University in 1960 and started to learn Arabic language and conduct a comprehensive research in religious sciences.

France halal foie gras on the menu Passion Islam

I February 2010

Snails and frogs are for the more discerning French palate but foie gras, particularly during the festive season, is universally popular. From Carcassonne to Calais, foie gras – made traditionally from goose livers, but more often now from duck livers - is an essential part of the feast in France and it appears many of the country’s six million Muslims have acquired the taste too.

Sales of halal foie gras have increased ten-fold in the last two years, delighting supermarket chains across France. “It is one of our bestsellers, we were selling more than 30 a day” said the manager of a Parisian branch of Carrefour, while a spokesman for a

leading meat wholesalers announced that demand for halal duck and halal capon has been “unprecedented” in 2009.

According to Antoine Sfeir, the Lebanese-born founder of the newspaper, Cahiers de l’Orient, the reason behind the boom in halal French delicacies is easy to explain: “First generation Muslims were traditionalists while the second generation were too busy working,” he says. “They just didn’t have the means, with seven or eight kids, to buy foie gras.”

But, says Sfeir, the current generation of French Muslims “feel they should make more of an effort to

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans to erect a barrier along part of Israel’s border with Egypt and install advanced surveillance equipment to keep out illegal migrants and militants.

The project will cost 1 billion shekels ($270 million) and take two years to complete. The barrier will not be erected along the whole border, which is 266 km (166 miles) long.

Advanced surveillance equipment will help border control officers to spot infiltrators.

Egyptian security sources in North Sinai said Israel had not informed the Egyptian authorities of its plan.

Egyptian police have stepped up efforts in recent months to control the frontier with Israel following an increase in human trafficking through Egypt. At least 17 migrants have been killed by Egyptian police since May.

Israel is also building a controversial barrier in and around the occupied West Bank. It says the razor-tipped fences and towering concrete walls are needed to stop suicide bombers from infiltrating its cities. Palestinians call it a land grab because it cuts through the West Bank in places.

Israel has so far built about half the planned 670 km (400 mile) long West Bank barrier.

A concrete barrier separates Israel from the Gaza Strip in the south and a network of razor-tipped and electronic fences stretches along its borders with Lebanon and Syria in the north.

Egypt is building an underground barrier along its border with the Gaza Strip to stem Palestinian arms smuggling through tunnels.

PM Netanyahu vowed not to release several high-profile Palestinian prisoners in exchange for

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integrate.”

Halal foie gras isn’t cheap. It costs more than standard foie gras – about 15 euros - but that’s because each tin has to receive a certificate of authentication from a mosque, stating that the meat conforms to halal practices.

Liberation has seized on the news of halal foie gras’ soaring popularity as a positive “symbol of integration”.

Israel to build barrier along Egyptian frontier captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

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I WORLD NEWS

Passion Islam

I February 2010

US College veil ban draws fire

A Massachusetts college decision to bar the wearing of face veils is drawing fire from Muslim and non-Muslim civil rights groups as an illegal move that jeopardizes rights and targets religious freedom of Muslims in particular.

“It’s a very strange policy,’’ Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based civil liberties group the Council on American-Islamic Relations said.

“I don’t know where it came from, the only thing we can conclude is that it’s designed to specifically target Muslims.’’

The College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences issued a decision to ban students or others on its campuses from wearing clothing that obscures the face, including face veils and burqas worn by Muslim women.

Michael Ratty, a spokesman for the college, which has campuses in Boston, Worcester, and Manchester, N.H., said “It is not directed to any group or individual. It applies to all students and faculty.”

But Muslims slammed the move as a form of religious discrimination for Muslims, “I think they have two Muslim women wearing face veils, that made them feel uncomfortable and they had to do something about it,” said Hooper.

Even security activists like Jonathan Kassa, executive director of Security on Campus, a nonprofit that advocates for safer US college campuses, are not in favour of the

rule, which they fear sacrificing rights in the name of security.

Civil liberties groups and campus activists are also opposing the college decision as toeing the American constitution’s red-line of respecting religious freedoms.

It is “puzzling and possibly illegal,” Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney at the Massachusetts American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said describing the new rule.

Hooper affirmed he had not heard of any similar policies adopted at any other US college.

He added that a minority of Muslims believe that wearing clothes that cover the face is required, but

that stopping them from practicing their faith remains “un-American.”

“If this went to court I would feel comfortable the women would prevail because of the legal precedent that has been set.”

CAIR says that the ban should have an exemption for those who wear face veils for religious reasons, as is the case with some Muslim women, so that not to jeopardize religious rights.

As the college’s the policy includes a medical exemption, it should also include a religious exemption, Hooper noted.

“People should have the right to practice their faith as they see fit, not as others see fit.”

France insists on Islamic finance French Minister of Economy, Industry and Employment Christine Lagrade’s Advisor Thierry Dissaux said here Saturday his country was going ahead with its plan to adopt the Islamic financial system.

A strictly secular European heavyweight, France is seeking to adopt the Islamic financial system just as a prelude to becoming a European center for Islamic economy.

Discussions are being held in France for applying Islamic financial operations to the field of banking regulation and settlement, Dissaux told KUNA.

In 2008, the French government voiced willingness to adopt the Islamic financial system so as to draw more investments to the country, he added.

The government has already introduced legal and tax amendments with a view to matching the requirements of the Islamic Sharia’ or law in terms of Islamic finance, the French official noted.

In July 2007, the French Financial Markets Authority laid down conditions and terms for setting up a fresh investment fund in line with the Islamic Sharia’, he said.

As for taxes, the tax authority, in

December 2008, released documents on necessary tax amendments, including a freeze on Islamic finance operations, Dissaux pointed out.

In its official tax guidelines on February 25, 2009, the authority set out procedures pertaining to Murabaha Sukuk (Islamic bonds) operations in the Islamic financial system, he added.

But the French drive to open up to Islamic finance is upsetting some politicians in the country.

Islamic Sharia’ forbids Muslims from usury, receiving or paying interest on loans.

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Nato, Kabul agree on Bagram prison handover

Europol gets new law to fight terrorism The Eurropean Law Enforcement Agency, Europol, announced that it has now acquired a stronger mandate and new capabilities to fight international crime and terrorism. Under a reform of its legal framework, which establishes Europol as a formal EU Agency for the first time in its 15-year history, Europol now benefits from increased powers to collect criminal information and a wider field of competence in supporting investigations of serious offences, it said in a statement.

Europol is based in the Hague, the Netherlands. The emergence of a stronger Europol as a full EU agency coincided with implementation of the

I February 2010

new EU Lisbon Treaty.

Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol, said “this is a time of great opportunity for Europol and police cooperation in the EU.” “We will use this period of reform to our mandate and capabilities, and the opportunities afforded by the Lisbon Treaty, to establish Europol as the criminal information hub and principal operational support centre in the EU,” he added.

Europol uses its information capabilities and expertise from over 600 officials to support national authorities in EU Member States in conducting almost 10,000 cross-border investigations each year.

Nato is to hand over control of the prison at Bagram airbase near Kabul to Afghan authorities, the country’s defence ministry said following criticism of the facility by human rights groups.

An agreement on the handover was signed between the Afghan government and Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, the ministry said. “This is an important step towards the extension of Afghan national sovereignty,” the ministry said. It added that the date for the handover had still to be agreed.

The detention centre at Bagram is a new facility officially named the Parwan Detention Centre after the province where it is located. It was opened in November to replace the previous Bagram prison, which held some 650 “enemy combatants”.

Human rights campaigners have criticised a facility that they say, while new, fails to comply with international norms as some inmates are victims of arbitrary detention.

An Invitation to add us facebook twitter

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I February 2010

UAE sheikh denies he plans to buy Spanish team

Spanish daily reported Sheikh Mansour was preparing to buy Real Madrid.

A UAE sheikh has denied a report in a Spanish magazine that he was preparing to buy football giants Real Madrid for $1 billion, the UAE’s official news agency WAM reported late.

Citing a source close to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who owns Britain’s Manchester City football club, WAM said the news was “unfounded” and “lacking credibility.”

The source stressed that Sheikh Mansour was totally focused on upgrading Manchester City and turning it into one of the Premiere League’s top clubs.

The source also said the sheikh appreciated Real Madrid’s experience and suported the twinning agreement, signed in 2005 between the Spanish giants and Abu Dhabi’s Al Jazira Club, of which the sheikh is president.

The report in question was published

by Spanish sports daily AS on Dec. 27 and

was subsequently picked up by various press agencies.

Tennis stars rally in aid of Haiti victims

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were among several of the world’s top tennis players starring in a

special fundraising event to raise money for the Haiti earthquake victims at Melbourne Park.

Despite being the eve before play commenced at this year’s first Grand Slam, Federer had put aside thoughts of his preparation, and encouraged an entourage of fellow stars to play a special mixeddoubles event in the Rod Laver Arena.

Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, Kim Clijsters, and Serena Williams were also

among those at the event, which began at 2pm local time. Entrance was $10 for adults and free for children under 12 and all proceeds went to the earthquake fund.

“I think it’s something as a tennis family we’re very happy to do,” said Federer.

“I know it’s on the eve of the first Grand Slam of the season, so it’s for some not so easy maybe mentally to separate, you know, a few things – but I think it’s a great initiative.”

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West Yorkshire Muslims up for awards Keighley’s Ambreen Sadiq and Heaton’s Adil Rashid are among the candidates short-listed for a British Asian Sports Award.

Eastburn Amateur Boxing Club member Sadiq has been selected by judges for the female junior sports personality of the year.

She was crowned Amateur Boxing Association schoolgirls’ national champion last June, aged 15.

Cricket all-rounder Rashid, who has continued to impress for Yorkshire and broke into the England one-day and Twenty20 squads last year, is nominated for the Most Up and Coming Personality of the Year.

They are invited to a glamorous awards ceremony on Saturday, February 6 at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

They will each be up against two other candidates in their categories, with the public being asked to vote to decide the winners.

Visit www.basauk.tv/ for more details.

My story with Islam and Hijab

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I SPECIAL FEATURE

Passion Islam

I February 2010

By Sapigat A. Magomedova, Dagistan, Russia

I was born and raised in Dagistan as part of the old Soviet Union.

Under the communist rule, religious schools were closed down and the practice of religion in public was not allowed or, at best, severely restricted. As a result, all this was done in hiding. But young people grew up in a non-religious atmosphere, reading and memorizing the writings of Marx and Lenin. This was forced on all of us in schools.

As far as I can remember, I felt a sense of injustice all around me, Hence, the search for justice was my primary concern since childhood. I looked for it in all the institutions I attended; in school, in musical institutes an in College. While at the University, I met professors in the first two years who reinforced the sense of justice inside me, but their

impact faded away quickly. After graduation, I tried to go to Syria, but my repeated attempts over five years failed.

One day while I was walking on the back of the Wolga River, I met one of my professors from the University. He was from Egypt, and he informed me of special Arabic language lesson being given at various Mosques, and that I had an opportunity to register in any of them. Even though I had studied the Arabic Language in College, I did not go far enough in mastering it. I looked at it only as a means to find an appropriate job in the future. Nevertheless, I did not go to these lessons and the matter was almost forgotten on my part.

A year later, I was sitting, thinking and contemplating about my life, what was of it and my

hopes for the future. I reached a conclusion that it would not be good to lose what I have already learned of the Arabic Language at the College. As a result, I decided to go to attend some of the lessons my professor told me about a year earlier. During these lessons, I met some girls who had recently joined the Islamic faith.

As I got to know them closer, I greatly admired their high morals and unselfish way of dealing with others, especially Muslim sisters.

We became close friends, and they encouraged me to attend the lessons, which I found to be a good opportunity to meet with my best Muslim friends.

I began to learn more about Islam, about the lives of the various messengers and prophets in the Quran. I was keen to know all the details about the life of

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I February 2010

Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) his character, his deeds and his teachings. Indeed, he is the best that God has sent to direct mankind to the righteous path of Allah. I also learned about the close companions of the great messenger, and how strong they were in their faith, standing ready to defend Islam with all they have including their souls. I learned the real meaning of love that goes beyond one’s self; it is the live of Allah and his beloved messenger.

I felt I have found what I was looking for; I no longer had the feeling of injustice and spiritual emptiness that was once about to ruin my life.

Learning the Arabic Language became a top priority in my life, not just a means to find a good job in the future, but to enable me to read and understand Quran properly, and enjoy the great spiritual feelings that accompany it. I felt so close to God. I knew this when the University of Cairo in Egypt sent me an invitation to

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study the Arabic Language in the College of Arts.

It was like a gift from God. This revived my old desire to go to an Arab country to study the Arabic language and, to add to it now, the Islamic religion. I was joyful and thankful.

The most difficult thing I faced when I first went to Egypt was the need to wear the hijab.

In my first few lessons, given by known Islamic scholars, I knew that I must wear hijab; it is a requirement for all Muslim women. I thought before, before I came to Egypt, that hijab was only for old women; my mother has always worn it. At the beginning, I thought I would not look good in the hijab since I was not very beautiful. I started paying attention to the girls around me, and I noticed that they looked really pretty in hijab even though they were not very beautiful. I believe that God helped me to see the prettiness of hijab in order for me to accept it myself.

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One day, I woke up before Fajr, prayed Qiyam, and asked God to accept me as a Muslim. I prayed with tears hoping that the hijab would accept me as I would accept it. In the morning, I got dressed and there was the hijab on my head. I felt strange as I looked different. The first thought that came to my mind was that I had on my head the Islamic crown of faith that God blessed Muslim women with. I felt I had become distinguished, and that God has put his hand on my head to protect me from others as well as myself. I have constantly, since then, thanked God for beautifying my looks as He did with my morals as a Muslim. I do love the hijab- what a blessing!

This, in brief, is my story with Islam and hijab and how they have both dramatically changed my life for good; indeed it’s a true miracle.

Please note that the photo in this article is only for illustration purposes.

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I February 2010

ISLAM IN ROMANIA One of the oldest Masjid in Romania

The presence of Tatars was notably attested through the works of Berber traveler Ibn Battuta, who passed through the area in 1334.

In Ibn Battuta’s time, the region was regarded as a westernmost possession of the Tatar Golden Horde, a khanate centered on the Eurasian Steppe. Archeology has uncovered that another Tatar group, belonging to the Golden Horde, came to Dobruja during the rule of Nogai Khan, and were probably closely related to the present-day Nogais. Following Timur’s offensives, the troops of Aktai Khan visited the region in the mid-14th century and around 100,000 Tatars settled there.

Before and after the Golden Horde fell, Dobrujan Muslims, like the Crimean Tatars, were recipients of its cultural influences, and the language in use was Kipchak. The extension of Ottoman rule, effected under Sultans Bayezid I and Mehmed I, brought the influence of Medieval Turkish, as Dobruja was added to the Beylerbeylik of Rumelia.

The grave of Sari Saltik, reportedly first erected into a monument by Sultan Bayezid, has since endured as a major shrine in Romanian Islam. The shrine, which has been described as a cenotaph, is one of many places where the Sheikh is supposed to be buried: a similar tradition is held by various local communities throughout the Balkans, who argue that his tomb is located in Kaliakra, Babaeski, Blagaj, Edirne, the Has District, Krujë, or Sveti Naum.Other accounts hold that Saltuk was buried in the Anatolian city of İznik, in Buzău, Wallachia, or even as far south as the Mediterranean island of Corfu or

Part 2

as far north as the Polish city of Gdańsk. The toponym Babadağ (Turkish for “Old Man’s Mountain”, later adapted into Romanian as Babadag) is a probable reference to Sari Saltik, and a Dobrujan Muslim account recorded by chronicler Evliya Çelebi in the late 15th century has it that the name surfaced soon after a Christian attack partly destroyed the tomb.

The oldest madrasah in Dobruja and Romania as a whole was set up in Babadag, on orders from Bayezid (1484); it was moved to Medgidia in 1903. From the same period onwards, groups of Muslim Tatars and Oghuz Turks from Anatolia were settled into Dobruja at various intervals; in 1525, a sizable group of these, originating from the ports of Samsun and Sinop, moved to Babadag. Bayezid also asked Volga Tatars to resettle into northern Dobruja.

In late medieval Wallachia and Moldavia In the two Danubian Principalities, Ottoman suzerainty had an overall reduced impact on the local population, and the impact of Islam was itself much reduced.

Wallachia and Moldavia enjoyed a large degree of autonomy, and their history was punctuated by episodes of revolt and momentary independence. After 1417, when Ottoman domination over Wallachia first became effective, the towns of Turnu and Giurgiu were annexed as kazas, a rule enforced until the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829 (the status was briefly extended to Brăila in 1542).

For the following centuries, three

conversions in the ranks of acting or former local hospodars are documented: Wallachian Princes Radu cel Frumos (1462-1475) and Mihnea Turcitul (1577-1591), and Moldavian Prince Ilie II Rareş (1546-1551). At the other end of the social spectrum, Moldavia held a sizable population of Tatar slaves, who shared this status with all local Roma people (see Slavery in Romania). While Roma slavery also existed in Wallachia, the presence of Tatar slaves there has not been documented, and is only theorized. The population may have foremost comprised Muslim Nogais from the Bujak who were captured in skirmishes, although, according to one theory, the first of them may have been Cumans captured long before the first Ottoman and Tatar incursions.

The issue of Muslim presence on the territory of the two countries is often viewed in relation to the relations between the Ottoman Sultans and local Princes. Romanian historiography has generally claimed that the latter two were bound by bilateral treaties with the Porte. One of the main issues was that of Capitulations (Ottoman Turkish: ahdnâme), which were supposedly agreed between the two states and the Ottoman Empire at some point in the Middle Ages. Such documents have not been preserved: modern Romanian historians have revealed that Capitulations, as invoked in the 18th and 19th centuries to invoke Romanian rights vis à vis the Ottomans, and as reclaimed by nationalist discourse in the 20th century, were forgeries.

Traditionally, Ottoman documents referring to Wallachia and Moldavia were

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I February 2010

unilateral decrees issued by the Sultan. In one compromise version published in 1993, Romanian historian Mihai Maxim argues that, although these were unilateral acts, they were viewed as treaties by the Wallachian and Moldavian rulers. Research carried out in the 2000s claims to have discovered genuine Capitulations and other documents taken as proof that the relations between the Danubian Principalities and the Porte did indeed have a contractual character.

Provisions toward Muslim-Christian relations have traditionally been assessed by taking in view later policies. According to one prominent interpretation, this would mean that the Principalities were regarded by the Ottomans as belonging to the Dâr al ahd’ (“Home of Peace”), a status granted to them in exchange for material gains. Therefore, the Ottoman Empire did not maintain troops or garrisons or build military facilities.Instead, as it happened in several instances, Ottoman Sultans allowed their Tatar subjects to raid Moldavia or Wallachia as a means to punish the dissent of local Princes. Literary historian Ioana Feodorov notes that the relations between the two smaller states and the Ottoman suzerain were based on a set of principles and rules to which the Ottoman Empire adhered, and indicates that, early in the 17th century, this system drew admiration from the Arabic-speaking Christian traveler Paul of Aleppo.

17th-19th century By the 17th century, according to the notes of traveler Evliya Çelebi, Dobruja was also home to a distinct community of people of mixed Turkish and Wallachian heritage. Additionally, a part of the Dobrujan Roma community has traditionally adhered to Islam;it is believed that it originated with groups of Romani people serving in the Ottoman Army during the 16th century, and has probably incorporated various ethnic Turks who had not settled down in the cities or villages. Alongside Dobruja, a part of present-day Romania under direct Ottoman rule in 1551-1718 was the Eyalet of Temeşvar (the Banat region of western Romania), which extended as far as Arad (1551-1699) and Oradea (1661-1699). The few thousand Muslims settled there were, however, driven out by Habsburg conquest.

The presence of Muslims in the two Danubian Principalities was also attested, centering on Turkish traders and small communities of Muslim Roma. It is also attested that, during later Phanariote rules and the frequent Russo-Turkish Wars, Ottoman troops were stationed on Wallachia’s territory.

Following the Crimean Khanate’s conquest by the Russian Empire (1783), many Tatars there took refuge in Dobruja, especially around Medgidia. At the time, Crimean Tatars had become the largest community in the region. Nogais in the Budjak began to arrive upon the close of the Russo-

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Turkish War of 1806–1812, when the Budjak and Bessarabia were ceded to Russia (they settled in northern Tulcea County - Isaccea and Babadag). Khotyn, once part of Moldavia, was the birthplace of Alemdar Mustafa Pasha, who was the Ottoman Grand Vizier until 1808.

Two more Grand Viziers between 1821 and 1828 came from Bender (a once Moldavian city), as Benderli Pashas.

Over the same period, large groups of Circassians (as many as 200,000), refugees from the Caucasian War, were resettled in the Dobruja and northern Bulgaria by the Ottomans (localities with large Circassian populace included Isaccea, Slava Cercheză, Crucea, Horia, and Nicolae Bălcescu). During the 1860s, a significant number of Nogais, also fleeing Russian conquest, left their homes in the Caucasus and joined in the exodus to Dobruja. Members of other Muslim communities which joined in the colonization included Arabs (a group of 150 families of fellahin from Syria Province, brought over in 1831-1833), Kurds, and Persians—all of these three communities were quickly integrated into the Tatar-Turkish mainstream.

Kingdom of Romania Tatars (yellow) and Turks (dark purple) in Northern Dobruja (1903)Tatars in Tulcea County were driven out by Russian troops during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 (see Muhajir Balkan). Following the conflict and the Berlin Congress, the Romanian government of Ion Brătianu agreed to extend civil rights to non-Christians. In 1923 a monument in the shape of a small mosque was built in Bucharest’s Carol Park, as sign of reconciliation after World War I. A small Muslim community resided on Ada Kaleh island in the Danube, south of the Banat, an Ottoman enclave and later part of AustriaHungary, which was transferred to Romania in 1923.

At the end of the Second Balkan War in 1913, the Kingdom of Romania came to include Southern Dobruja, whose population was over 50% Turkish (the region was ceded to Bulgaria in 1940). As recorded after World War I, Romania had a population of 200,000 Muslims from a total of 7 million, the majority of which were Turks who lived in the two areas of Dobruja (as many as 178,000).

Since 1877, the community was led by four separate muftiyats. Their number was reduced during the interwar period, when the cities of Constanţa and Tulcea each housed a muftiyat. In 1943, the two institutions were again unified around the mufi in Constanţa.

Outside Dobruja, the relatively small presence of Albanian Muslims also left a cultural imprint: in 1921, the first translation of the Qur’an into the Albanian language was completed by Ilo Mitke Qafëzezi in the Wallachian city of Ploieşti.

Until after World War II, the overall religiously conservative and apolitical Muslim

I 23

population reportedly enjoyed a notable degree of religious tolerance. Nevertheless, after 1910, the community was subject to a steady decline, and many predominantlyMuslim villages were abandoned.

Communism & post-Revolution period The dome of the Carol I Mosque in Constanţa, topped by the Islamic crescent The Dobrujan Muslim community was exposed to cultural repression during Communist Romania. After 1948, all property of the Islamic institutions became state-owned. The following year, the state-run and secular compulsory education system set aside special classes for Tatar and Turkish children. According to Irwin, this was part of an attempt to create a separate Tatar literary language, intended as a means to assimilate the Tatar community.

A reported decline in standards led to the separate education agenda being ceased in 1957. As a consequence, education in Tatar dialects and Turkish was eliminated in stages after 1959, becoming optional, while the madrasah in Medgidia was shut down in the 1960s. The population of Ada Kaleh relocated to Anatolia shortly before the 1968 construction of the Đerdap dam by a joint Yugoslav-Romanian venture, which resulted in the island being flooded. At the same time, Sufi tradition was frowned upon by Communist officials—as a result of their policies, the Sufi groups became almost completely inactive.

However, according to historian Zachary T. Irwin, the degree to which the Muslim community was repressed and dispersed was lower in Romania than in other countries of Eastern Europe, and the measures were less severe than, for instance, those taken against Romanian Roman Catholics and Protestants.

The state sponsored an edition of the Qur’an, and top clerics such as Mufti Iacub Mehmet and Bucharest Imam Regep Sali, represented the community in the Great National Assembly during Nicolae Ceauşescu’s years in office. In the 1980s, a delegation of Romanian Muslims visited Iran after the Islamic Revolution succeeded in that country. They also adhered to international bodies sponsored by Libya and Saudi Arabia.

These gestures, according to Irwin, brought only a few objections from the regime.

Following the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Tatar and Turkish were again added to the curriculum for members of the respective communities, and, in 1993, the Medgidia madrasah was reopened as a Theological and Pedagogic High School named after Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The school was later elevated to National College status, and is known in Romanian as Colegiul Naţional Kemal Atatürk. Since the 1990s, the official representatives of the Muslim community maintain close relations with international non-governmental organizations such as the Muslim World League.

A Comparative Study of Ideologies

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I SPECIAL FEATURE

Passion Islam

I February 2010

Part Four

For the background of the fascist philosophy one has to go back to Fichte, Nietzsche and Treitschke among the Germans.

Fichte preached the divine mission of the German nation.

Nietzsche despised love and gentleness; for him, Life moved upward by the urge to more and more power. Men are eternally classified into masters and slaves. There is no universal humanistic ethics; there is only master morality and slave morality.

All these influences must have worked on the Germans as well as the Italians. In comparison with Mussolini, who was a scholar, Hitler was an ignorant fanatic. Some biographers of Mussolini have mentioned a number of thinkers whose philosophies Mussolini imbibed and incorporated in his outlook. He was admirer of the pragmatism of William James whose theory of truth is that truth is that which works, which Mussolini interpreted as “that which works is right.” Bergson is another irrationalist whose creative evolution taught that the ‘elan vital’, the vital urge of life, creates existence,

truth and values as it proceeds. There is no truth that mirrors any eternal pattern of reality.

Fascism appears to be closer to Machiavelli than to any other political thinker. Mussolini being an Italian appears to have been deeply impressed by him. One of Mussolini’s biographers relates the story of Mussolini’s father reading Machiavelli to the boy. After he became a Dictator, Mussolini began a thesis on Machiavelli, of which only the introduction was complete and published. Machiavelli taught that all was fair for the power and glory of the State and in inter-State relations the tenets of abstract justice and morality must be disregarded.

Men are naturally egotistic, powerloving and vicious. Justice is not natural to the individual, who could be made to bow to law and force by necessity. Liberty would create only confusion and disorder. A statesmen can succeed only if he starts on the presumption of the natural baseness and ruthless self-seeking of men. It is not idealism but force which rules all human relations.

To sum it, fascist philosophy revolves round the conception of the nationalistic, totalitarian State, organised as an organic cultural unit, strong, self-sufficient and aggressive.

It wants to strengthen the collective, national ego.

Islamic Political and Economic Ideology Having given brief sketches of capitalistic communist and fascist ideologies, we are now in a position to compare and contrast them with the basic Islamic concepts. None of these ideologies can be accepted or rejected as a whole; they emphasize partial truths and fragmentary realities mixed with a good deal of false and untenable attitude towards life. Industrial capitalism, which was accompanied with liberal democratic movements was based on the laissez-faire economics of Adam Smith. This system created rapidly great wealth and made the nations practising it strong and prosperous.

But this prosperity was achieved at a great cost. The masses got the right of vote but were gradually

I February 2010 made so helpless that their political liberty was of no avail. Instruments of production became more and more costly and could be possessed by only very large capitalists either singly or in corporation. As wealth was concentrated at the one end, poverty grew at the other end. Society began to split up into classes of haves and have-nots. Formerly, when the instruments of production were less costly, the peasant, the worker, the craftsman became easily the owners of these instruments. Now the independent craftsman lost his independence and became a cog in a colossal capitalistic, machine.

Liberal democracy had secured for him the right of vote and the freedom of contract but he was too weak to bargain. Gradually after a sustained struggle, the workers came together in trade unions and were pitched as a class against the employers. As the employer had a right to close the factory, the workers had a right to strike to improve their wages. Capitalism developed its own inner contradictions which we have already mentioned, and mere political democracy failed to create social justice. Capitalism also created colonialism and war for markets. When the social fabric of humanity began to sag everywhere, different nations produced different remedies and panaceas to cure the ills of a confounded civilisation.

It is well known that Islam is not only a metaphysical belief but it offers a system and scheme of life which has logical unity. We will try to give a brief sketch of its ideology. We will see that it agrees with some parts of every great scheme and rejects some other parts. Every system thus far sketched has some vital defect that vitiates it either in its very foundations or in the consequences that inevitably follow from it.

Laissez-faire capitalism preached liberty and equality in. the abstract but the State remaining neutral in the struggle for existence could take no steps to see that unjust inequalities are not accentuated. In delivering society from feudal and monarchical tyranny, it created a kind of free wageslavery: the right of free contract and free vote remained abortive: political democracy was combined with economic slavery. Capitalistic society in countries like England and America

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has progressively tried to remedy the evils that ensue from uncontrolled capitalism but the strains and stresses generated by the nature of the system continue to create social unrest.

Islam is based on liberty, fraternity and equality and its philosophical outlook is theistic. All philosophies of life and fundamental attitude towards existence have great practical consequences. We have seen that the philosophy of orthodox Communism is materialistic and atheistic. Over and against that. Islam believes that life has a spiritual origin, a spiritual background and a spiritual goal and purposes. The universe is not governed by blind mechanistic forces and is not subject to merely a materialistic dialectic. Life has a physical basis too and Islam does not ignore it. It is cognisant of the fact that the physical well-being of man must be assured, in order to make him spiritually free.

Created by a good, omniscient and omnipotent Being, the universe is not ethically neutral but is positively good. whose processes generate certain abiding values.

There is no antithesis between the spirit and the flesh or between this world and the next. As God is one so entire existence is linked together.

The Muslim is asked to pray for wellbeing in this world prior to well-being in the next. Moral causation creates effects here and now as it will continue to do in the hereafter. Communism repudiates the providential explanation of creation, and its explanation of all human history, as of all physical phenomena based on crass materialism; only modes of production produce moral, religious or cultural values. The Quranic explanation of history is quite the opposite of it. It asserts that the rise and fall of nations is due primarily to the changes in the beliefs and characters of the nations.

Islam believes that when ‘vision fails the nations perish.’ According to the Qur’an, no real revolution occurs in the life of a people until a revolution occurs in their mental and moral outlook. “Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition” (13-2). The Qur’an gives illustrations of materially prosperous nations that perished because of their narrow materialistic outlook. Not believing In the 4 eternal

SPECIAL FEATURE I 25 verities of the moral law, they became selfish and tyrannical: they were given great latitudes to reform themselves, but when they did not heed the Signs of the Lord, the day of reckoning came and they were doomed. “God has set up a balance of right and wrong; the balance is so sensitive and unerring that every atom is weighed in it, and the result becomes visible in due course.”

The Islamic theory of history follows from its materialism. The two outlooks are so diametrically opposed that it is impossible for a theistic Muslim to become a Marxian Communist.

The Fascists replaced the worship of mere production and equitable distribution, by the worship of the State. The worship of the State is nothing but magnified tribalism of the barbarous period of civilisation: “My country, right or wrong.” Fascism wants to build up a powerful State and inculcates the worship of the State as a super-individual entity: it is virtually the worship of the tribal god or idol.

Islam too saw the necessity of building up a powerful State which should safeguard the fundamental liberties of the people and which should protect itself against aggressors from outside and also protect the weak from the tyranny of the strong. Islam is a social and political religion and all of its institutions have a reference to social justice and social solidarity. No unconditional obedience, however, is due to the State or its leaders and governors. Obedience to superiors is inculcated .in the interest of law and discipline, but this obedience is always conditional on the orders being moral. “There is no obedience in sin” is a fundamental tenet of Islam. The orders and actions of even the Supreme Head of the State can be publicly questioned by even the humblest citizen.

In Islam there is complete equality, before law. The Prophet Muhammad himself asked others to exercise their right of relations or compensation even against himself, if he had inadvertently done them any wrong.

The mighty Khalifa Omar and the wise and pious Ali appeared in the courts as claimants or defendants to demand even-handed justice.

Islam inculcates government by consultation. The Prophet almost daily held consultations with his companions on matters of the State.

We gratefully acknowledge and thank the Institute of Islamic Culture for permission to reproduce Chapter 13 from his book “ Ideology of Islam “ by Khalifa Abdul Hakim.

Continued next month

Passion Islam

I February 2010

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