Saudis Divided on Televised Tarawih, Islamic Ideology, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Ideology

Saudis Divided on Televised Tarawih

Saudi worshippers and scholars see the live broadcasting of Tarawih is causing them to lose the spiritual atmosphere during the rite.

By Ali Al-Hajib, IOL Correspondent

Yazeedi said many worshippers lose concentration during the prayers because of the cameras.

"Watching the cameras, you would find worshippers whose eyes are glued to the cameras."

In Ramadan, adult Muslims, save the sick and those traveling, abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.

Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to become closer to Allah through prayer and self-restraint.

"Broadcasting the prayers may disturb worshippers during the prayers," imam Hani Al-Refae told IOL.

Refae, the imam of Al-Anani mosque in Jeddah, was asked by a media corporation to broadcast the Tarawih prayers from his mosque.

http://newageislam.com/saudis-divided-on-televised-tarawih/islamic-ideology/d/767

It's the Oil, stupid!, Islam and the West, NewAgeISlam.com

Islam and the West

It's the Oil, stupid!

By NOAM CHOMSKY

July 8 2008

Negotiations are under way for Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners decades ago in the Iraq Petroleum Company, now joined by Chevron and other smaller oil companies — to renew the oil concession they lost to nationalisation during the years when the oil producers took over their own resources. The no-bid contracts, apparently written by the oil corporations with the help of U.S. officials, prevailed over offers from more than 40 other companies, including companies in China, India and Russia.

"There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract," Andrew E. Kramer wrote in The New York Times.

Kramer's reference to "suspicion" is an understatement. Furthermore, it is highly likely that the military occupation has taken the initiative in restoring the hated Iraq Petroleum Company, which, as Seamus Milne writes in the London Guardian, was imposed under British rule to "dine off Iraq's wealth in a famously exploitative deal."

http://newageislam.com/it-s-the-oil,-stupid!/islam-and-the-west/d/273