29 Aug 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com
ICOP predicts Eid Al Fitr on September 10
Abbas, Palestinians Should Die - Israeli Rabbi
Cricket Scandal Rocks Pakistan
New York imam: Politics behind mosque opposition
Qaddafi gives lesson on Islam to young Italian women
A Sikh Temple Where All May Eat, and Pitch In
Obama says not worried by Muslim “rumours”
Kidnapped workers for Afghan female MP found dead
Racial profiling, cries Indian filmmaker held in US
26/11: Pak to send panel to India
Advani hails party, Farooq for good show in House
Pak wants UK to extradite Zardari shoe-thrower
Militants in US uniforms storm 2 NATO bases
JEDDAH: Woman tipped to take up top job at JCCI
Hardline woman separatist leader Asiya Andrabi arrested in Srinagar
Muslim chaplains serve US college campuses
Jobless Arabic language teachers stage protest
Islamic college opens in California
Bangladesh: Barua’s presence in Jamaat TV channel raises question
Terrorists surrender after hostage drama
11 civilians dead in fresh Mogadishu fighting
19 dead in shootout in Russia’s Caucasus
US drone strike kills 5 in Kurram
Seven US troops killed in latest Afghanistan fighting
Prayer space cannot be reserved in Haram
Ground Zero Muslim center may get public financing
Fidel Castro: Osama bin Laden is a US agent
Civil Defense prepared to tackle big rush in Makkah
Iraq on highest alert for terror attacks
Haqqani reassures on aid workers’ security in flood-hit Pakistan
Military taking Taliban threat seriously: Mullen
Terrorist killed in Jamrud
Qaeda accepts responsibility for killing eight Yemeni troops
Obama says Iraq war ‘ending,’ calls country ‘sovereign’
India blocks Pak entry into IOR
UAE raises more than 20 million dollars for Pakistan
Gunmen kill five in latest Afghan poll violence
Iran says no final decision on woman’s stoning
1,000 trucks to distribute Saudi flood relief
Protesters ask Iran to spare convicted woman
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
Photo: Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's words were condemned as deeply offensive
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=3357
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ICOP predicts Eid Al Fitr on September 10
29 August 2010
Islamic Crescents’ Observation Project announced that Friday, September 10 as the first day of Eid Al Fitr astronomically in most of the Islamic countries.
In a statement today, Islamic Crescents’ Observation Project stated that the majority of Islamic countries have started Ramadan on Wednesday, August 11th consequently the 29th of Ramadan will fall on Wednesday, September 8th and on this day sighting of the crescent from all regions of the Islamic world, the continents, Asia, Africa and Europe is impossible as the moon will set before sunset, therefore these countries should complete the month of Ramadan 30 days and Eid will be on Friday, September 10th, 2010.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2010/August/theuae_August777.xml§ion=theuae
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Abbas, Palestinians Should Die - Israeli Rabbi
30 Aug. 10
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week.
"Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth," Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel's government, said in a sermon late on Saturday, using Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's popular name.
"God should strike them and these Palestinians -- evil haters of Israel -- with a plague," the 89-year-old rabbi said in his weekly address to the faithful, excerpts of which were broadcast on Israeli radio on Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments and said Israel wanted to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians that would ensure good neighbourly relations.
"The comments do not reflect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's view or the position of the government of Israel," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
The Iraqi-born cleric has made similar remarks before, most notably in 2001, during a Palestinian uprising, when he called for Arabs' annihilation and said it was forbidden to be merciful to them.
He later said he was referring only to "terrorists" who attacked Israelis. In the 1990s, Yosef broke with other Orthodox Jewish leaders by voicing support for territorial compromise with the Palestinians.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Yosef's latest comments were tantamount to calling for "genocide against Palestinians." The rabbi's remarks, he said, were "an insult to all our efforts to advance the negotiations process."
Arriving at Netanyahu's office for a weekly cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai of Shas declined to comment when asked by reporters about Yosef's sermon.
Netanyahu and Abbas are due to resume direct peace talks in Washington on Thursday, the first such negotiations in 20 months in a peace process that commits both sides to avoid incitement, which has included anti-Jewish sermons by Palestinian clerics.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/08/29/world/international-uk-palestinians-israel-rabbi.html
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Cricket Scandal Rocks Pakistan
By JOHN F. BURNS
LONDON — For many Pakistanis, weighed down by their country’s descent into biblical levels of violence and flooding, there was a sense of a final straw in the crude betting scandal that broke over the weekend around the Pakistani cricket team, whose players have long been idols with feet of clay in a nation with few exemplars elsewhere to buoy vulnerable spirits.
Even as the Pakistani team faced humiliating defeat by England in a game played on the hallowed grasses of Lord’s ground in London, traditionally regarded as the home of cricket, Scotland Yard detectives interrogated three of the team’s key players — including the captain and an 18-year-old novice who has been the team’s star performer in its series with England — in their hotel on Saturday night.
The detectives told team managers that they had been tipped to a “spot fixing” scandal that was about to be splashed across the front page of Sunday’s News of the World, Britain’s most widely circulated tabloid.
Spot-fixing refers to a form of corruption that has plagued cricket, soccer and other sports in Europe, particularly Britain, the former colonial power in what is now Pakistan. Instead of bribing players to fix matches outright, considered too risky for the Asian betting syndicates involved, the schemes often rely on fixing details of play that — while not necessarily affecting a game’s outcome — can attract millions of dollars of bets across Asia.
The News of the World, one of the tabloids owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation media conglomerate, ran its top Sunday story under a banner headline that read: “Caught!”
The paper said that an undercover reporter posing as a wealthy businessman planning to bet on the Lord’s game had paid the equivalent of more than $230,000 to a London-based “fixer” who claimed to have seven members of the 11-man Pakistani team “in his pocket” and four who had specifically agreed to join in the scheme.
On its Web site the newspaper accompanied its story with a video showing the man suspected of being the fixer, Mazhar Majid, 35, sitting in a London hotel room with stacked bundles of British pound sterling notes on a table. Scotland Yard said it had arrested Mr. Majid on suspicion of fraud before interviewing the cricketers.
The video appears to show Mr. Majid telling the undercover reporter details of exactly when during Thursday and Friday’s match at Lord’s, Pakistan’s bowlers — cricket’s equivalent of baseball pitchers — would deliver three “no balls,” cricket terminology that refers to balls ruled foul by umpires because the bowler’s front foot falls beyond a chalk line on the 22-yard pitch at the moment of delivery.
As the game developed, the no-balls were delivered by the Pakistani team’s star bowlers, Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif, at exactly the moments in the game specified by Mr. Majid in his video exchange with the News of the World reporter.
“I’m telling you, if you play this right, you’re going to make a lot of money, believe me,” Mr. Majid told the undercover team, according to the newspaper.
When the cricket match in London resumed on Sunday, 12 hours after the Scotland Yard detectives had interviewed the two bowlers and the team captain, Salman Butt, and impounded their cellphones, it was doubtful whether the Pakistani players would even play.
But play they did, and lose, by a heavy margin. Although the three Pakistani players were on the field, several of England’s former cricket captains, now working as television commentators, said they suspected it might be a long time, if ever, before they were selected to play for Pakistan again.
As the Pakistan players returned to their hotel after the game, a knot of Pakistani fans banged on the team’s bus, and cried their dismay.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful,” one man shouted. Another man, interviewed by the BBC, appeared to verge of tears.
“The cricket was only good thing that was happening to us, what with the floods and everything else,” he said.
The captain, Mr. Butt, was evasive when asked at a postgame news conference if the paper’s allegations were true. “I am saying that every person on my team gave 100 percent,” he said.
But Pakistan’s embattled government lost no time in reacting, and not to offer any defense. President Asif Ali Zardari, who spent years in Pakistani prisons over the past decade over allegations that he embezzled millions while his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was prime minister in the 1990s, said through a spokesman that he had “directed that he be kept posted” on the police inquiry in London. He ordered the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, a government appointee, to submit a personal report.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani was more direct. Visiting his hometown, Multan, he told reporters that the allegations against the cricketers had made Pakistan’s 170 million people “hang their heads in shame.”
For Pakistanis, the allegations were a fresh body blow. Although their faith in the cricket team has been repeatedly undermined by years of scandal and factionalism within the team, cricket remains hugely popular, as it does in neighboring India, which has faced similar cricket scandals.
In both countries, cricket outstrips all other popular entertainment, except possibly Bollywood films. Former cricket stars like Imran Khan, who led Pakistan to victory over England in the final of the 1992 world cricket championship before entering politics, are enduring household names.
Even with vast areas of Pakistan under water, television sets in unaffected areas, in households, cafes and community centers, have drawn eager followers throughout the summer to follow Pakistan’s progress in two separate series played in England, first against Australia, for many years the top team, and subsequently against England.
In both series, the Pakistani players performed erratically, mixing episodes of brilliance with almost crass ineptitude, causing many involved in cricket, as officials and commentators, to question whether more than just the no-balls had been fixed in the four-game series with England.
In the newspaper’s video, Mr. Majid boasted that he could fix other details of the game, including the number of runs scored in any period of play.
Andrew Strauss, England’s captain, was asked after the end of the match whether he worried that other aspects of the series, which England won 3-1, had been subverted. “Hopefully, those fears are unfounded,” he said.
Adding to the woes of Pakistan’s supporters at home, the team has been unable to play in Pakistan for the past 18 months, since the Dubai-based International Cricket Board banned other national teams from playing in Pakistan after a terrorist attack on Sri Lanka’s team in March 2009 in the city of Lahore.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/world/europe/30cricket.html?ref=europe
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New York imam: Politics behind mosque opposition
30 Aug. 10
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: The imam spearheading a proposed Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York believes the fierce opposition is closely linked to the US elections in November, according to comments published Monday.
"There is no doubt that the election season has had a major impact upon the nature of the discourse," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was quoted by the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National in an interview as part of his State Department-funded trip in the Gulf.
Rauf did not cite any particular political race possibly tied to the protests, but many conservative candidates and political figures have aligned themselves with the opposition to the $100 million project that includes a mosque and Islamic cultural center.
Some Republicans running for midterm elections around the United States have used the project as a campaign issue after national conservatives Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin announced their opposition. Kevin Calvey, a Republican running for Congress in Oklahoma, said the Muslim leaders associated with the mosque "are clearly terrorist sympathizers." Even Democrats are feeling the pressure to respond to the debate.
The highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is facing a tough re-election in Nevada, has said the mosque should be built farther away from Ground Zero.
President Barack Obama has said Muslims had the right to practice their religion and build the Islamic center in lower Manhattan. Obama later said he wasn't endorsing the specifics of the plan.
Rauf compared the current struggles facing American Muslims to past religious-based prejudices and attacks against other groups, including Jews and Roman Catholic immigrants.
"And this is why it is important, the issue of radicalism is a threat to all of us," he was quoted as saying. "We have radicals in the Muslim world and we have radicals in the other faith traditions as well." He said extremists from all faiths "feed off each other and need each other to sustain themselves." "So we need right now to combat the radical voices.
That's the only way we can win this struggle, and establish a peaceful world order, which is what everybody wants and everybody needs," he told the newspaper.
Rauf has made only selected public comments since beginning a three-nation tour earlier this month — concentrating almost exclusively on his views about moderate Islamic values and interfaith dialogue. He has so far avoided any extensive statements addressing the opposition to the project or recent anti-Muslim violence, including the slashing of a New York taxi driver last week.
The imam said Muslims in the United States are part of an "evolving American Islamic identity." "But as time goes on and as the second generation establishes itself and is rooted in the United States they articulate an expression of who we are as Americans and to be seen decreasingly as alien and being local ... In perceptions between the Muslim world or the Arab Muslim world and the United States in particular, it is an ongoing picture, it is dynamic," he said.
http://arabnews.com/world/article119419.ece
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Qaddafi gives lesson on Islam to young Italian women
30 Aug. 10
ROME: Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi gave a lesson on Islam and copies of the Qur’an to a few hundred young Italian women Sunday as he arrived in Rome for his fourth visit in a year.
It was the second time the Libyan leader — who travels with female bodyguards and fancies himself a self-styled feminist — had staged such an event for Italian women, who were recruited by a modeling agency and paid an undisclosed sum to attend.
Michela, who asked that her last name not be used, said that three of the participants converted to Islam on the spot.
“It was a really beautiful meeting and went very well,” she said. “He is very easygoing and he gave us a copy of the Qur’an. Three girls converted themselves to Islam during the ceremony. It was a beautiful event.”
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/world/article118862.ece
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A Sikh Temple Where All May Eat, and Pitch In
By LYDIA POLGREEN
AMRITSAR, India — The groaning, clattering machines never stop, transforming 12 tons of whole wheat flour every day into nearly a quarter-million discs of flatbread called roti. These purpose-built contraptions, each 20 feet long, extrude the dough, roll it flat, then send it down a gas-fired conveyor belt, spitting out a never-ending stream of hot, floppy, perfectly round bread.
Soupy lentils, three and a third tons of them, bubble away in vast cauldrons, stirred by bearded, barefoot men wielding wooden spoons the size of canoe paddles. The pungent, savory bite wafting through the air comes from 1,700 pounds of onions and 132 pounds of garlic, sprinkled with 330 pounds of fiery red chilies.
It is lunchtime at what may be the world’s largest free eatery, the langar, or community kitchen at this city’s glimmering Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion. Everything is ready for the big rush. Thousands of volunteers have scrubbed the floors, chopped onions, shelled peas and peeled garlic. At least 40,000 metal plates, bowls and spoons have been washed, stacked and are ready to go.
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/world/asia/30india.html?ref=world
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Obama says not worried by Muslim “rumours”
30 August 2010
A public opinion poll showing Americans are increasingly convinced, wrongly, that he is Muslim does not trouble him, President Barack Obama said on Sunday.
“It’s not something that I can, I think, spend all my time worrying about it,” Obama said in an interview with NBC News, dismissing the results of a recent Pew Research Center.
“I’m not going to be worrying too much about whatever rumors are floating out there. If I spend all my time chasing after that, then I wouldn’t get much done.”
The Pew poll showed nearly one in five Americans — 18 percent — believe Obama is a Muslim, up from 11 percent in March 2009.
Full report at:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/August/international_August1627.xml§ion=international
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Kidnapped workers for Afghan female MP found dead
30 Aug. 10
Fauzia Galani is one of the few female candidates standing for election in September
The bodies of five people working for a female candidate in Afghanistan's parliamentary election have been found in western Herat province.
They were among a group of 10 people kidnapped by armed men on Wednesday. Five were later released, say reports.
The Taliban later said they carried out the abductions. No group has said it carried out the killings.
The staff were working for Fauzia Galani, who is seeking re-election to parliament in September's polls.
Police chief Nisar Ahmad Popal said the bodies had been found dumped on a mountainside in Adrskan district.
Reports say their hands had been bound and they had been shot in the head.
Full report at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11125517
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Racial profiling, cries Indian filmmaker held in US
Abhinav Garg
Aug 30, 2010
NEW DELHI: In his first interview since being incarcerated in a US jail nearly 10 days ago, Mumbai-based documentary film maker Vijay Kumar has claimed that he is a victim of racial profiling and is being harassed by US officials.
Speaking over phone from a detention centre where he was shifted from Houston county jail, Kumar, a strict vegetarian, claimed he skipped food in jail for two days as he was deliberately served non-vegetarian fare. Kumar's visa was revoked and he was declared an illegal visitor after he got bail from Houston county court.
Kumar was detained at Houston international airport while on his way to Vancouver, Canada after "behavioural detection officers" at the airport felt something was amiss with him. They pulled him in for questioning and were further alarmed when his baggage revealed publications dealing with Jihad and Islam. According to US authorities, his checked-in baggage from New Delhi revealed a pair of brass knuckles, prohibited by Texas state law, though not banned under US federal law.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/indians-abroad/Racial-profiling-cries-Indian-filmmaker-held-in-US/articleshow/6458344.cms#ixzz0y3uglkQa
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26/11: Pak to send panel to India
Aug 30, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government plans to approach an anti-terror court, conducting the trial of seven suspects in the Mumbai attacks, to form a commission that can visit India to record the statements of key witnesses and officials, interior minister Rehman Malik has said.
"We will request the court to form a commission and that commission can go (to India) and record the statement of witnesses, including the magistrate and police officers who recorded the statement of (Ajmal) Kasab," Malik told reporters. Kasab, the lone terrorist captured during the November 2008 attacks, has been sentenced to death by a court in Mumbai.
New Delhi has rejected Islamabad's request to send Kasab to testify in the anti-terrorism court conducting the trial of seven Pakistani suspects, including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/26/11-Pak-to-send-panel-to-India/articleshow/6459107.cms#ixzz0y3umq1N9
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Advani hails party, Farooq for good show in House
Aug 30, 2010
NEW DELHI: In a round-up of the monsoon session of Parliament, senior BJP leader L K Advani praised his party's role as the main opposition especially in case of two important matters — the nuclear liability bill and the issue of Jammu & Kashmir.
Interestingly, apart from praising senior BJP MPs Jaswant Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi for their "excellent performance" in the House on the respective issues, Advani also lauded National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah for denouncing talks of "azadi" in Kashmir.
Commending Jaswant Singh for speaking "politely but firmly" on the nuclear issue, Advani, in his blog, said the veteran leader took the government to task for trying to hustle the passage of the civil nuclear liability bill.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Advani-hails-party-Farooq-for-good-show-in-House/articleshow/6459097.cms#ixzz0y3usfSb8
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Pak wants UK to extradite Zardari shoe-thrower
LAHORE: Pakistan has requested the British government to extradite Shamim Khan, the man who reportedly hurled his shoes at president Asif Ali Zardari during an event at Birmingham earlier this month.
The interior ministry has provided details of Khan's "criminal record" to British authorities and requested them to hand him over to Pakistan so that he can be brought to justice.
"Shamim Khan, a resident of Palai Gala of Sehnsa sub-division in Azad Kashmir, has been declared a proclaimed offender in a case of attempted murder.
"In 1993, he had shot and injured his opponent and an inspector and then managed to flee to Britain," a source said. A case had been registered against Khan in Palai Gala police station, the source added.
"We have tried to unearth who is behind the conspiracy hatched against president Zardari during his visit to Brimingham. It has been established that Khan had never been a PPP worker," a Pakistan People's Party leader said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pak-wants-UK-to-extradite-Zardari-shoe-thrower/articleshow/6458408.cms#ixzz0y3uy2WvG
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Militants in US uniforms storm 2 NATO bases
29 August 2010
KABUL: US and Afghan troops repelled attackers wearing American uniforms and suicide vests in a pair of simultaneous assaults before dawn on Saturday on NATO bases, including one where seven CIA employees died in a suicide attack last year.
The raids appear part of an insurgent strategy to step up attacks in widely scattered parts of the country as the US focuses its resources on the battle around the Taliban’s southern birthplace of Kandahar.
The militant assault in Khost began about 4am when dozens of insurgents stormed Forward Operating Base Salerno and nearby Camp Chapman with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, according to NATO and Afghan police.
Twenty-one attackers were killed - 15 at Salerno and six at Chapman - and five were captured.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\29\story_29-8-2010_pg7_6
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JEDDAH: Woman tipped to take up top job at JCCI
29 August 2010
JEDDAH: A woman has been tipped to take one of the top jobs at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI).
Lama Sulaiman, the first woman deputy chairman of the JCCI, says it was a strong possibility as women have been nominated for the secretary-general post in the past. Sulaiman told Arab News that a secretary-general would be announced only after Ramadan, adding that there were no regulations preventing women from holding such positions.
The position fell vacant when Hani Abo Ras, who had previously held the post, was appointed mayor of Jeddah in place of Adel Fakieh, who had become minister of labor. Aisha Nato, a JCCI board member, had earlier said that she had spoken to chairman Saleh Kamel, who had confirmed that no law prevents a woman from becoming secretary-general. This position needs only a qualified person, said Nato, and women have a better chance due to their business experience.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article117544.ece
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Hardline woman separatist leader Asiya Andrabi arrested in Srinagar
Aug 28, 2010
SRINAGAR: Hardline woman separatist leader Asiya Andrabi, believed to be one of the masterminds of the current unrest in the Kashmir Valley, was arrested from a hideout here on Saturday, police said.
Andrabi was arrested from Zakura on the city outskirts, a police officer told IANS.
The chief of the women's separatist outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Andrabi was issuing shutdown calendars through emails to the media and was one of the brains behind the turmoil in the valley, police said.
The 50-year-old Andrabi, a staunch votary of Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan, had been asking Kashmiris to observe shutdowns, close down businesses and schools and participate in protest demonstrations.
She had been in hiding for the last three months.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Hardline-woman-separatist-leader-Asiya-Andrabi-arrested-in-Srinagar/articleshow/6451416.cms#ixzz0xtocReHu
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Muslim chaplains serve US college campuses
29 August 2010
NEW YORK: When Umar Qadri arrived as a freshman at Yale University three years ago this September, he felt the prospects for Muslim religious life on campus were grim.
At most, two dozen students showed up to weekly Friday prayers. Religious celebrations and interfaith events were difficult to arrange without help from the university's administration. Infighting dogged the Muslim Students Association (MSA), which steadily declined in membership, recalls Qadri.
He can point to the exact moment when things began to look up: July 1, 2008, the day the university appointed Omer Bajwa as its first Muslim chaplain. Bajwa is one of a growing number of Muslim chaplains on American campuses serving an estimated 75,000 Muslim college students, according to the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
"He gave legitimacy to the Muslim community here," said Qadri, a 21-year-old near Eastern languages and civilization major. "Membership in the MSA has increased, as well as attendance at worship and events. I've noticed my attendance increase since he's been here."
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/world/article117516.ece
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Jobless Arabic language teachers stage protest
29 August 2010
RIYADH: Hundreds of Arabic language teachers gathered Saturday from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. in front of the Ministry of Education here demanding jobs. Some of the teachers have been without work for seven years.
Over 12,000 graduates from different universities of the Kingdom share the same distress. The ministry did not respond to the teachers' demands, which according to Tariq, a 2006 graduate, are simple: "We just want a job, a decent life, a life!"
Tariq and his colleagues, some of whom were taken to hospital due to heat exhaustion, claim they took this step after many previous efforts went in vain.
"We resorted to this method only after we had sent many messages, held meetings and visited officials in the ministry, but failed to get a response," said Tariq, adding that they even tried to get in touch with the minister but were told he is in Jeddah and his deputy is in charge.
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article117618.ece
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Islamic college opens in California
29 August 2010
WASHINGTON: The long history of Islamic scholarship has just gotten a novel addition: a college in California that seeks to educate Muslim leaders.
Zaytuna College held its inaugural classes Aug. 24 and aims to become America's first four-year, accredited, Islamic institution of higher learning.
Founded by three Muslim-American scholars, Zaytuna focuses on renewing Islam's intellectual tradition while placing it in the context of American society.
"As the years pass, the founding of Zaytuna College will prove to be a milestone in bringing about both a sounder understanding of Islam and better relations between Muslims and members of other faith communities here in the United States - God willing," founder Zaid Shakir said in a news release marking the college's opening.
Dustin Craun, a student from Colorado in Zaytuna's first class, said the college will help Muslims navigate their role in the United States.
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/world/article117517.ece
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Barua’s presence in Jamaat TV channel raises question
29 August 2010
The presence of a minister and a top government law official in a programme of a television channel owned by a suspected war criminal has created controversies regarding trial of war crimes.
Industries minister and Samyabadi Dal general secretary Dilip Barua on Friday inaugurated the second anniversary of Diganta TV, of which Jamaat-e-Islami executive committee member Mir Kashem Ali is the chairman of management committee. Additional attorney general MK Rahman, Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries president AK Azad and prominent freedom fighter Kader Siddiqui were also present there.
There are allegations of war crimes against Kashem, who was a leader of Islami Chhatra Sangha (predecessor to Islami Chhatra Shibir, the associate organisation of Jamaat), during the liberation war in 1971.
Full report at:
http://www.newagebd.com/2010/aug/29/nat.html
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Terrorists surrender after hostage drama
29 August 2010
PESHAWAR: Army commandos and Frontier Constabulary personnel stormed an intelligence office in Peshawar on Saturday and freed two people who had been taken hostage by escaped militant prisoners.
The 10-hour long hostage drama started in the early hours of Saturday when three terrorists were being moved from one compound to another in the Cantonment area. The militants somehow overpowered their two guards and snatched their guns. They then started shooting. One of the guards was injured in the firing.
“Some of the terrorists who were kept in a building for interrogations overpowered their two sentries during interrogations,” said Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Liaquat Ali.
Panic gripped the area, where a number of sensitive government and security installations are located, including the US Consulate.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\29\story_29-8-2010_pg1_2
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11 civilians dead in fresh Mogadishu fighting
29 August 2010
MOGADISHU: A night of clashes in south Mogadishu killed at least 11 civilians as insurgents continued whittling away the areas controlled by government forces, sources said on Saturday.
Fighting erupted late on Friday and continued overnight around Hodan and Holwadag districts where witnesses reported Somali government forces and their allies lost key positions.
“Pro-government Sufi militants have moved back from their positions in Sigale (part of Hodan) late yesterday but we have reinforced the positions with heavily armed military units so that the situation is under control now,” Mohamed Adan, a government security official told AFP on Saturday.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\29\story_29-8-2010_pg4_2
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19 dead in shootout in Russia’s Caucasus
29 August 2010
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia— A shootout between the Chechen president’s personal protection detail and suspected separatist insurgents has left 19 people dead, including five civilians, officials and media reports said.
At least 12 suspected insurgents and two security officers were killed when the rebels entered Tsentoroi, Ramzan Kadyrov’s home village, early Sunday, his spokesman Alvi Karimov told The Associated Press. TV reports said five civilians were killed in the crossfire.
Kadyrov, who is thought to regularly supervise security operations in the field, was in the village at the time and directed the counter-offensive, Karimov said.
“We let them into the village so they couldn’t escape,” Kadyrov told Channel One television, which showed him examining the bodies of the suspected militants strewn across a road. “We forced them into a place where they could be eliminated,” he said.
Full report at:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/August/international_August1606.xml§ion=international
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US drone strike kills 5 in Kurram
29 August 2010
Parachinar—US drone aircraft have attacked suspected militants in Kurram Agency killing five people, Pakistani officials said on Saturday. Separately, shots were fired in Peshawar, near the US consulate, but it was not clear who the gunman was or what he was firing at, police said. There were no reports of any injuries, they said. “There were attacks in three different places on Friday evening,” said a government official in the region, who declined to be identified. Two of the missiles hit vehicles carrying suspected militants. It was not clear if the three attacks were carried out by one or more aircraft, they said. The identity of the five dead was not known while several suspected militants were wounded, the officials said.
http://dailymailnews.com/0810/29/FrontPage/index.php?id=9
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Seven US troops killed in latest Afghanistan fighting
29 Aug, 2010
KABUL: Seven US troops have died in weekend attacks in Afghanistan's embattled southern and eastern regions, while officials found the bodies Sunday of five kidnapped campaign workers for a female candidate in the western province of Herat.
Two servicemen died in bombings Sunday in southern Afghanistan, while two others were killed in a bomb attack in the south on Saturday and three in fighting in the east the same day, Nato said. Their identities and other details were being withheld until relatives could be notified.
The latest deaths bring to 42 the number of American forces who have died this month in Afghanistan after July's high of 66. A total of 62 international forces have died in the country this month, including seven British troops.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/04-afghanistan-fighting-7-us-troops-killed-qs-07
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Prayer space cannot be reserved in Haram
29 August 2010
MAKKAH: The Grand Mosque authorities have taken strict measures to see that the front rows in the mosque are not occupied by late arriving worshipers.
Nobody will be allowed to spread prayer mats in the front rows to reserve a place and deny worshippers who come early the opportunity to pray in the front lines, Muhammad Al-Assaf undersecretary at the Presidency for the Two Holy Mosques Affairs, said on Sunday.
There some people in Makkah who reserve seats for late comers in the front seats for a fee. Several steps have been taken to stop this illegal practice.
The steps include the posting of a warning that anyone who wants to get seats in the front rows will have to come sufficiently in advance.
The presidency has appointed 30 officials to seize any prayer mat used to reserve seats. The officials will keep a watch to see that no seats are reserved. Those who spread the mats will be handed over to police and their mats donated to charitable societies, he said.
He added the best method to prevent such negative practices was to increase people’s awareness of the undesirability of such acts.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article117553.ece
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Ground Zero Muslim center may get public financing
29 August 2010
NEW YORK: The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy.
The Democratic comptroller's spokesman, Scott Sieber, said Liu supported the project. The center has sparked an intense debate over US religious freedoms and the sanctity of the Trade Center site, where nearly 3,000 perished in the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.
"If it turns out to be financially feasible and if they can demonstrate an ability to pay off the bonds and comply with the laws concerning tax-exempt financing, we'd certainly consider it," Sieber told Reuters.
Spokesmen for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gov. David Paterson and the Islamic center and were not immediately available.
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/world/article117260.ece
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Fidel Castro: Osama bin Laden is a US agent
By PAUL HAVEN
29 August 2010
HAVANA — Fidel Castro says al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is a bought-and-paid-for CIA agent who always popped up when former President George W. Bush needed to scare the world, arguing that documents recently posted on the Internet prove it.
"Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do," Castro told state media during a meeting with a Lithuanian-born writer known for advancing conspiracy theories about world domination. "Bush never lacked for bin Laden's support. He was a subordinate."
Castro said documents posted on WikiLeaks.org — a website that recently released thousands of pages of classified documents from the Afghan war — "effectively proved he was a CIA agent." He did not elaborate.
Full report at:
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Civil Defense prepared to tackle big rush in Makkah
By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA
29 August 2010
MAKKAH: As the flow of Umrah pilgrims and visitors to the Grand Mosque gains momentum in the holy month of Ramadan, the Civil Defense in Makkah has mobilized all resources to cope with any emergency situation.
Equipped with state-of-the art facilities and equipment, the Civil Defense has been closely monitoring the movement of pilgrims after implementing safety measures, especially in the central Haram area and other parts of the holy city, according to Capt. Waleed Abu Shanab, director of operations in Makkah.
He told Arab News that the operations room had received almost 21,500 calls during the first 10 days of the fasting month.
“Our department has set up 1,700 cameras at the entry and exit points of the holy city as well as in the central Haram area and the holy sites. These cameras help us monitor any situation throughout the city. Our field staff swing into action based on images from these cameras,” he said.
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article117536.ece
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Iraq on highest alert for terror attacks
29 August 2010
As US President Barack Obama reaffirmed his campaign promise to end the war in Iraq and refocus on Afghanistan as home to the top threats against America, Iraq's prime minister put his nation on its highest level of alert for terror attacks, warning of plots to sow fear and chaos as the US combat mission in the country formally ends on Tuesday.
BAGHDAD: Iraq's prime minister put his nation on its highest level of alert for terror attacks, warning of plots to sow fear and chaos as the US combat mission in the country formally ends on Tuesday.
The Iraqi security forces who will be left in charge of guarding the nation have been hammered by near-daily bomb attacks, prompting criticism of the government's readiness for the American troop drawdown.
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article117043.ece
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Haqqani reassures on aid workers’ security in flood-hit Pakistan
29 August 2010
WASHINGTON: Ambassador to US Husain Haqqani on Saturday reassured international flood relief workers of security, saying that a large number of foreign aid providers had been able to operate safely in Pakistan in recent years.
“The government has, of course, a whole security strategy for aid workers and no aid worker has been hurt in Pakistan in the last several years,” Haqqani told a US TV channel, following reports of Taliban threat against international relief workers.
He said that while every terrorist threat should be taken seriously, the Taliban “use threats, sometimes, to intimidate and dissuade people from coming (to Pakistan)”. “One of their objectives, of course, is to create greater discontentment and greater unrest against a government that is democratically elected,” the diplomat said.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\29\story_29-8-2010_pg7_4
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Military taking Taliban threat seriously: Mullen
29 August 2010
CLEVELAND: A Taliban threat against aid workers helping flood victims in Pakistan must be taken seriously and shows that militants have no moral boundaries, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said on Saturday. “I share the concern that was stated yesterday by the State Department,” Admiral Mullen told reporters after a luncheon speech to the City Club of Cleveland, Ohio. Mullen said he has seen no evidence of attacks against aid workers in Pakistan or US military forces helping the relief effort. Still, he said, “the insurgents, from my perspective, have no moral bounds”.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\29\story_29-8-2010_pg1_5
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Terrorist killed in Jamrud
29 August 2010
BARA: A foreign terrorist was killed in a clash with security forces in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency on Saturday. Political administration officials told Daily Times that terrorists attacked security forces during a search operation at Shakas area in Jamrud. “Terrorists opened fire at security forces when they entered the house of Kashmalo Zakhakhel during the search operation,” the officials said. The security forces retaliated and an Uzbek fighter was killed. They also arrested four local terrorists, who were present in the house at the time. The officials said that security forces had shifted the body and the arrested people to Peshawar. Meanwhile, the bullet-riddled body of an FC solider, Baitullah, was found in Bara area. He had been kidnapped a few days ago. Local residents said that a note found on the body stated that he was executed by the Taliban for spying on the terrorists. s
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\29\story_29-8-2010_pg7_9
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Qaeda accepts responsibility for killing eight Yemeni troops
29 August 2010
ADEN: Al Qaeda’s regional wing claimed responsibility for an attack on a checkpoint in southern Yemen on Saturday in which eight soldiers were killed, a security official said. State media has blamed fighting in the south, in which dozens have been killed in the past three months, on al Qaeda’s resurgent regional wing and armed separatist militants. The attack on the checkpoint occurred in Zinjibar, capital of Abyan. Al Qaeda’s wing previously focused on high-profile strikes on foreign targets but has started to aim at the state in response to the enhanced US-Yemeni cooperation in a crackdown against the group that has included air strikes and raids.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\29\story_29-8-2010_pg7_22
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Obama says Iraq war ‘ending,’ calls country ‘sovereign’
29 August 2010
VINEYARD HAVEN: Three days before the official end of the US combat mission in Iraq, US President Barack Obama said on Saturday that the war in the country was “ending” and called Iraq a “sovereign” nation free to determine its own destiny.
“On Tuesday, after more than seven years, the US of America will end its combat mission in Iraq and take an important step forward in responsibly ending the Iraq war,” Obama said in his weekly radio address.
“As a candidate for this office, I pledged I would end this war,” Obama recalled in the address. “As president, that is what I am doing. We have brought home more than 90,000 troops since I took office.”
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\29\story_29-8-2010_pg4_1
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India blocks Pak entry into IOR
From Sajid Aziz
29 August 2010
KARACHI—Pakistan, considered as cooperating countries has once again deprived its entry into Indian Ocean Rim – Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) due to successful maneuvering by neighboring country India. The recent ministerial meeting of IOR-ARC held in Sana’a, Yemen earlier this month once again left the issue of the inclusion of Pakistan into the regional organization meant for economic cooperation and promotion of bilateral trade. Pakistan’s membership into IOR-ARC has remained in abeyance since the inception of this regional organization comprising 18 countries on Indian Ocean. The IOR-ARC was launched as the Indian Ocean Region Initiative in Mauritius in 1997. The launch followed discussions such as the first Inter-Governmental Meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative held in Mauritius on 31 March 1995and the International Forum on the Indian Ocean Region, held in Perth in June that same year. The principle objective of the IOR-ARC is to facilitate enhanced economic co-operation between members, with a particular focus on trade and investment liberalization.
Full report at:
http://dailymailnews.com/0810/29/FrontPage/index.php?id=2
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UAE raises more than 20 million dollars for Pakistan
29 August 2010
DUBAI: A nationwide fundraising campaign in the United Arab Emirates has so far raised more than 20 million dollars of aid for Pakistan flood victims, the official WAM news reported.
The campaign, launched by the UAE Red Crescent under the slogan “Your Help,” raised more than 75 million dirhams (20.4 million dollars) over its first four days and will carry on until Monday, WAM said late on Saturday.
It said a live TV fundraising campaign was being run on several Emirati television channels.
Pakistan has a close ties with the oil-rich Emirates, where hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis live and work, mostly labourers.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/04-uae-raises-20-mn-for-pakistan-qs-09
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Gunmen kill five in latest Afghan poll violence
29 August 2010
HERAT - Armed men have killed five campaigners working for a female candidate in next month’s parliamentary election in Afghanistan, an official said on Sunday, the latest attack amid growing security fears.
The election is being seen as a key test of stability in Afghanistan, where violence is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, before U.S. President Barack Obama conducts a review of his Afghan war strategy in December.
Poor security, particularly in Taliban strongholds in the south and east, already looms as the biggest challenge to the ballot, along with corruption and fraud.
Four candidates have already been killed. On Saturday, unidentified gunmen killed candidate Haji Abdul Manan as he walked from his home to a mosque in western Herat province. The Taliban later claimed the attack.
Full report at:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/August/international_August1603.xml§ion=international
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Iran says no final decision on woman’s stoning
29 August 2010
TEHERAN - Iran said on Saturday that it has yet to take a final decision on the stoning of a woman convicted of adultery and complicity in her husband’s murder in a case that has sparked an international outcry.
As human rights groups demonstrated in Paris and France called on the European Union to threaten new sanctions, the foreign ministry said that the carrying out of the sentence has been stayed pending a judicial review.
‘In this case, implementation of the sentence has been stayed and is under review by the judiciary,’ ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told AFP.
Human rights officials in the judiciary, quoted by ISNA news agency, said 43-year-old mother of two Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in a case which also got her a 10-year jail term for participating in her husband’s murder.
Mohammadi-Ashtiani and her lover Issa Taheri escaped the death sentence for their role in the murder as they were pardoned by the victims’ relatives, a statement by the rights officials said.
Full report at:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2010/August/middleeast_August559.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
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1,000 trucks to distribute Saudi flood relief
29 August 2010
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia will distribute 1,000 truckloads of relief supplies to Pakistan flood victims beginning Monday, an official statement said.
The relief is being arranged on the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, it said, adding that Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior Prince Naif would supervise the program.
During the two-month-long relief program, trucks will carry foodstuffs such as rice, flour, cooking oil and milk, beans and lentils, the statement added.
In the first phase, 80 trucks will go to the flood-affected areas of Punjab and Kashmir. About 8,000 families in Punjab will receive 160 tons of flour, 40 tons of rice, 40 tons of lentils, 16 tons of milk and 40,000 liters of cooking oil.
Around 12,000 families in Kashmir will get 240 tons of flour, 60 tons of rice, 24 tons of lentils, 24 tons of beans, 25 tons of milk and 60,000 liters of cooking oil.
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article117623.ece
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Protesters ask Iran to spare convicted woman
29 August 2010
About 300 people from rights organizations have demonstrated in Paris to urge Iran to lift its death sentence on an Iranian woman convicted of adultery.
The protesters carried banners reading "Let's Save Sakineh," in honor of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.
After international protests, Iran lifted the stoning sentence last month, but she could still face execution by hanging.
Iran-born women's rights activist Anna Pak told Saturday's Paris crowd that Iran must "stop killing men and women" after alleged forced confessions.
Sihem Habchi, of a noted French group representing downtrodden minority women, said Ashtiani symbolizes the "right to be a woman."
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article117756.ece
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=3357
11:37 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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