Taliban using poison gas on Afghan schoolgirls?, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Taliban using poison gas on Afghan schoolgirls?

KUNDUZ: More than 80 schoolgirls in northern Afghanistan have fallen ill after a suspected poison gas attack on their school, local authorities said on Sunday, blaming the incident on the Taliban who oppose education for girls. Kunduz provincial spokesman Mahbobullah Sayedi said the latest case occurred on Sunday when 12 girls fell ill at school.

Officials said 47 complained of dizziness and nausea on Saturday, and another 23 got sick last Wednesday. None of the illnesses have been serious.

Sayedi blamed the sickness on "enemies" who oppose education for girls. Provincial police chief Abdul Razzaq Yaqubi also accused the Taliban of orchestrating the attack.

"I was in class when a smell like a flower reached my nose," said Sumaila, 12, one of the girls hospitalised after the alleged attack.

"I saw my classmates and my teacher collapse and when I opened my eyes I was in hospital," she said.

Azizullah Safar, head of the Kunduz hospital, said many of the girls were still suffering from pain, dizziness and vomiting.

The Taliban banned all education for girls when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001 and it remains a disputed issue in much of Afghanistan.

Similar attacks have been carried out in other parts of Afghanistan over the past few years, including areas where there is little presence of the dreaded Taliban.

http://newageislam.com/taliban-using-poison-gas-on-afghan-schoolgirls?/islamic-world-news/d/2760

Rahul Gandhi to motivate Aligarh Muslim University students to pursue higher education, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Rahul Gandhi to motivate Aligarh Muslim University students to pursue higher education

HAATHRAS: AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi will interact with the students of Aligarh Muslim University, during his two-day visit to Uttar Pradesh starting December 7.

"Rahul, who has been invited by vice-chancellor P K Abdul Azis, will address students at Kennedy hall of the university on December 7," AMU spokesman Rahat Abrar said here.

This will be Gandhi's first visit to AMU. Around 800 students selected from various faculties, residential halls and schools affiliated with the AMU will also attend the event.

"Rahul will motivate students to pursue higher education," Abrar said.

The Congress leader will also visit Jama Masjid and pay tributes to Sir Syed Ahmad, founder of the AMU.

On the second day of his visit, Gandhi will attend a convention of PCC representatives to be held at UPCC headquarters in Lucknow on December 8 where the party's membership campaign would be discussed.

Later in the day, the Congress leader will also attend programmes to be organised in Ambedkar Nagar and Kanpur.

"Rahul Gandhi, who will be on a two-day visit to Uttar Pradesh, will attend various programmes to be organised in Sitapur, Bahraich, Aligarh, Aliganj (Etah) and Hardoi district on December 7," party spokesman Dwijendra Tripathi said in Lucknow.

AMU revokes suspension of 18 students

The Aligarh Muslim University administration on Thursday revoked the suspension of 18 students, who were charged with misconduct and indiscipline.

http://newageislam.com/rahul-gandhi-to-motivate-aligarh-muslim-university-students-to-pursue-higher-education/islamic-world-news/d/2187

Deoband resolution on ‘Vande Mataram’ pointless, The War within Islam, NewAgeIslam.com

The War within Islam

Deoband resolution on ‘Vande Mataram’ pointless

Fatwa for nobody

By Aijaz Ilmi

Nov 10, 2009

The Supreme Court had managed to put a firm lid on the Vande Mataram issue, but, true to form, the religious clergy cannot desist from their desire to keep the communal cauldron boiling. When there is no compulsion, what is the need for any resolution or fatwa? Meanwhile, the reaffirmation of an earlier resolution of the Darul Uloom condemning terror is good news — but at the same time we must name the LeT, Jaish and others and send a strong message.

The home minister should be careful about the bouquets, as the brickbats can be as swift. As citizens of a secular democratic country with a vibrant judiciary, fatwas have little meaning in present-day India. Salman Khursheed’s timely rejoinder about the futility of a fatwa about non-issues and the need for addressing the real, burning issues — education and employability of Indian Muslims, for example — are laudable. I wish resolutions at Deoband had addressed the following questions: Why do Indian Muslims have the highest levels of illiteracy, both male and female, in the country? Why do we have the highest number of school drop-outs? Why do we have the lowest representation in both the public and the private sector? What steps are we taking to stop pernicious recruiters who lure young impressionable minds towards terror ideologies?

http://newageislam.com/deoband-resolution-on-%E2%80%98vande-mataram%E2%80%99-pointless/the-war-within-islam/d/2074

Islamic Rhetoric in Pakistan – II by Hamza Alavi, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics

Islamic Rhetoric in Pakistan – II by Hamza Alavi

By Hamza Alavi

The 'Ulema' (plural of alim, a man of - religious - learning) is a grandiose term, which is often used quite loosely, as for example in the results of a survey recently published by the Government of Pakistan which finds the vast majority of them to be barely literate. To be properly classified amongst the 'Ulema' a person would have been educated at a religious seminary and would have gone through the 'Dars-e-Nizami' a syllabus that was laid down in medieval India and has hardly changed. Generally, they have little knowledge of the world that they live in, nor even perhaps of the world of Islam except for myths and legends. They inhabit little temples of their own uncomprehending and enclosed minds in which they intone slogans, petrified words and dogmas. Affairs of state and society are, generally, beyond their narrowed vision. There are only a few amongst them who have had the benefit of some tolerable education and who, in their own ways, try to follow current affairs.

http://newageislam.com/islamic-rhetoric-in-pakistan-%E2%80%93-ii-by-hamza-alavi/islam-and-politics/d/932

Talibanisation of Pakistan continues with the help of administration, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Talibanisation of Pakistan continues with the help of administration

A lost generation

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The Taliban of Pakistan today believe, think and act as did the Taliban who ruled Afghanistan until late in 2001. There, they obliterated female education. They did not just slow it down or put it on hold; they finished it at every level from primary to university. Such female education as there was in the areas they controlled was delivered by brave teachers who defied them and was received by the children of even braver parents who refused to be cowed down by the Taliban's medieval mindset. As those tasked with the reconstruction of Afghanistan have learned, it is not enough to merely build schools; they have to be staffed by trained teachers and supplied and maintained. Above all, the population has to be convinced that there is honour, merit and value in educating females. That is where the Taliban in Pakistan have scored such a significant victory - and a significant loss for the rest of the country. It is the power and control that they exercise over the minds of those they dominate and intimidate that is their most potent weapon. It is the fear of sending girls to school that is now placed in the minds of those terrified of the consequences of so doing, which will embed for a generation. Fear such as this does not switch on and off like a light bulb, it ebbs slowly away if it ebbs at all, taking years to be replaced by confidence and a change of heart.

We might also raise the question of the administration as to why, knowing the threat posed to girls' schools, they did not do more to protect them. The answer, in no small part, may lie in that some elements of the administration share the same goals and aspirations as the Taliban, are their tacit supporters and are unlikely to get in the way if the Men in Black torch whatever education facility for girls they may choose. A hollow victory; a lost generation.

http://newageislam.com/talibanisation-of-pakistan-continues-with-the-help-of-administration/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/440

Yemen: Youth Shoura Council seeks to tackle unemployment that is breeding terrorism, Islamic Society, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Society

Yemen: Youth Shoura Council seeks to tackle unemployment that is breeding terrorism

Yemen Times Staff

Council members also stressed the importance of the private sector and its role in helping to decrease unemployment. Faris Al-Himyari, head of the YCC’s media and culture committee, said, “It’s important to talk more about the private sector’s role and seek better cooperation between the public and private sectors. We’re talking about the future here, so I believe it’s important for all sides and parties to help build a safe one.”

In the council’s final statement, members indicated that there should be more cooperation between all educational bodies in Yemen, adding that they look forward to creating a better future for young Yemenis by providing them more jobs.

As Mejalli stated, “Yemen’s Ministry of Higher Education and the Civil Services Ministry should have a strategy of cooperation so that college graduates will be able to find jobs. This also would help dispel the many unacceptable phenomena that are growing in this country, one of which is terrorism.”

http://newageislam.com/yemen--youth-shoura-council-seeks-to-tackle-unemployment-that-is-breeding-terrorism/islamic-society/d/665

Syria: The Djinns of Jupiter, Islamic Society, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Society

Syria: The Djinns of Jupiter

By Renuka Narayanan , Hindustan Times

July 18, 2008

It’s a bit startling nevertheless to walk into an upmarket shop near Bab Touma (the ‘Gate of Thomas’, but earlier the ‘Gate of Venus’) in the Christian quarter to look closer at lovely walking socks and discover inside that buying lingerie is something of a feminine pastime in Syria. Moreover, Syrian girls, like Indian girls, have to be married, and a bride must be equipped with at least 25 to 30 kinds on her wedding night, according to one young lady, or her groom may think she is not trying enough to please him. Despite their apparent freedom in dress, right-to-work and education compared to women in other Muslim-majority countries that we’ve seen or heard about, I got the impression that many Syrian women like other women of the Sharq (East) were firmly under the patriarchal thumb in their personal lives. (One Muslim girl wept quietly that her family wouldn’t let her marry her Christian boyfriend – so like in India).

http://newageislam.com/syria--the-djinns-of-jupiter/islamic-society/d/255