Islami News: Dec 11, 2009

Turkey court bans pro-Kurdish party

Turkey's constitutional court has banned the country's main pro-Kurdish party for having links to armed separatist fighters.

The court voted on Friday to shut down the Democratic Society Party (DTP) and banned dozens of members from joining other political parties for five years.

It also expelled two of the party's politicians, including Ahmet Turk, the DTP leader, from parliament.

The court found the party guilty of co-operating with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast in a conflict that has lasted 25 years and claimed 40,000 lives.

Consequences

The ruling is likely to hamper Turkey's efforts to join the European Union, which had warned Ankara that banning the party would violate Kurdish rights.

Turkey's Kurdish population, whose language was outlawed for years, has long complained of discrimination.

But Hasim Kilic, the constitutional court chairman, said the party's closure "was decided due to its connections with the terror organisation and because it became a focal point of the activities against the country's integrity".

The ruling comes after weeks of clashes between police and protesters angry at the the prison treatment of Abdullah Ocalan, the founder of the PKK.

Earlier this week a protester was shot dead as 15,000 pro-Kurdish protesters marched in the city of Diyarbakir.

Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Turkey, said there are fears the ruling will lead to more violence.

"We've seen an escalation of street protests, we're now seeing fatalities ... and this will be seen by many Kurds as provocation, they will not take this well," she said.

The DTP was founded in 2005 as a successor to several Kurdish parties that were forced to wind up for collaborating with the PKK.

Unfortunate timing

The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community.

The party says it has "no organic links" with the separatists, but insists the group should be considered an interlocutor in efforts to resolve the Kurdish conflict.

Cengiz Aktar, a columnist with the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News, said there are "some links" between the DTP and the PKK but criticised Turkey for making party closures "a habit".

"The links apparently are there, according to the constitutional court. But in modern democracy, party closures are very seldom," he told Al Jazeera.

"This one really comes at a very unfortunate moment when the country was making a very important opening towards its Kurdish minority

"It's a totally new era and suddenly comes this unacceptable decision that may overturn the whole democratisation process and bring the country to the verge of chaos."

Source: Al Jazeera

Ousted Zelaya 'to meet successor'

The president of the Dominican Republic has said that Manuel Zelaya, the deposed Honduran president, will meet his elected successor next week in this Caribbean nation.

Leonel Fernandez said on Friday that he expected Zelaya and Porfirio Lobo, Honduras's president-elect, to meet on Monday in Santo Domingo to examine ways to resolve the political crisis that has gripped Honduras since Zelaya was ousted.

"As of Sunday and Monday, we will have both figures of the Honduran political world in the Dominican Republic," Fernandez said.

He said that Zelaya would arrive on Sunday and Lobo on Monday morning.

Fernandez said that he expected to meet both men separately, and then bring them together for discussions.

No confirmation

There was no indication that a deal for allowing such a meeting had been reached with the de facto government that replaced Zelaya after a coup on June 28.

Rene Zepeda, the information minister in the de facto government, said that it had not received a petition from Zelaya or from officials in the Dominican Republic to ask that Zelaya be granted safe passage to leave the country.

Zelaya also did not confirm that a meeting with Lobo was set.

He told the Associated Press news agency only that he was grateful to Fernandez for seeking to arrange the meeting.

"We are thankful for President Fernandez's gesture because it shows his intention to solve the Honduran crisis in an effort to benefit Central America. We are analysing his proposal and we are in communication with President Fernandez," Zelaya said.

However, Lucia Newman, Al Jazeera's Latin America correspondent, said that for Fernandez's statement indicates that negotiations are more advanced than one might first think.

"Fernandez has had a lot of success in the past in bringing conflicting sides together," Newman said.

"And Lobo has already said that he wants to bring about national reconciliation, and that he is willing to speak to all sides, including the deposed president."

Still at odds

Honduran officials and Zelaya have been at odds this week over the terms of a deal that would let him leave the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, without fear of arrest on the charges of treason and abuse of power that led to his removal from power and exile.

He has taken refuge in the embassy since slipping back into Honduras on September 21.

The government has insisted that he must concede he is no longer president, although his term runs to January 27.

Zelaya says he won't do that and on Thursday rejected a Mexican offer for a safe exit from Honduras.

"There is a lot of pressure on the de facto government to give in and stop trying to force Zelaya to sign a paper that says he resigns as president in order to give him a safe conduct pass," Newman said.

"Many countries, especially in South America, are staunchly resisting any recognition of the new government, no matter what deal is struck.

"They say that anything less than the reinstatement of the deposed president is saying that it is ok to have a military coup, as long as you have an election soon after.

"And that is not the message they want to send."

Ultimate departure

Zelaya told Brazil's Globo television earlier on Friday that he would remain at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa until January 27, 2010 at the latest, when his term formally ends.

"However, I would like to leave as soon as possible, obviously with the support of the Brazilian government," he said.

Brazil had also indicated that Zelaya should leave by the end of his tenure.

"He is absolutely aware that when his mandate ends, he will need to go elsewhere," Francisco Catunda, the Brazilian embassy's charge d'affaires, said.
Source: Al Jazeera

Obama Creating Torture Impunity: ACLU

CAIRO — Receiving his Nobel Peace Prize, US President Barack Obama is facing accusation of creating impunity framework for former officials implicated in authorizing torture. "The (former president George W.) Bush administration constructed a legal framework for torture," Jameel Jaffer, National Security Project Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said in a statement on the group's website.

"Now the Obama administration is constructing a legal framework for impunity."

Hours after his inauguration, Obama has promised to close the US notorious detention center Guantanamo and secret CIA prisons.

He has also vowed to scrap all harsh interrogation techniques authorized by the Bush administration against terror suspects.

"But this administration is also shielding Bush administration officials from civil liability, criminal investigation and even public scrutiny for their role in authorizing torture," Jaffer said.

Last April, Obama said interrogators who had used waterboarding on terror suspects will not face prosecution.

He also released Bush-era memos specifying that the practice did not constitute torture.

The Bush administration has sanctioned the use of aggressive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding and sleeping deprivation, against suspects.

It was embroiled in shocking detainee abuse scandals in the notorious Guantanamo detention center, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Bush administration also authorized the CIA to operate awork of secret detention centers in different world countries and fly detainees to countries where they were tortured.

Damaging

ACLU, which has pursued nearly a dozen cases against the US government since 2003 related to prisoner abuse, dubbed Obama stance as “disappointing”.

"We're increasingly disappointed and alarmed by the current administration's stance on accountability for torture," said Jaffer.

"The administration is actively obstructing accountability."

The rights group said that Obama’s stance greatly damages America’s credibility abroad.

"The lesson that this is giving to the rest of the world is that countries do not have to be accountable for their actions even when torture and abuse occurs," Christopher Anders, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel, said.

"That's going to make it much more difficult for the United States to push other countries on human rights issues across the board and it's going to make it much easier for other countries to shirk their own duties to bring accountability for their own actions in the past."

Source: IslamOnline

Anti-Internet Rabbis

CAIRO – Alarmed by the growing use of the Inte among their followers, ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis are waging a war against the World Wide Web for leading believers astray and threatening their way of life. “We consider it to be very dangerous,” Yitzhak Goldknopf, an ultra-orthodox rabbi, told The Independent on Friday, December 11.

“It is something that is liable to cast down a lot of casualties.”

The rabbis have been campaigning against the use of Inte among their followers, warning that the technology leads believers astray.

Wall posters have sprung up in the ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim area of Jerusalem, warning followers against the use of the Inte.

“To our dismay, computers with all sorts of abominations have been found in the unsupervised flats, may God protect us,” says one of the posters, signed by the Committee for the Purity of the Neighborhood.

Vishnitz Hasidic, another ultra-orthodox group, threatened followers with exclusion from its education system if they install an inte connection.

Other attacks came in cursing sermons by prominent rabbis.

“This epidemic must be stopped,” Yisrael Hager, a leading rabbi, said in a recent address to followers.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who follow strict interpretations of Judaism, make up 8 to 15 percent of Israel's population.

They live in a reclusive community and generally shun the television, Inte and most radio stations.

Their life revolves around a strict dress code that has men sporting black coats, hats and long beards and women covering their heads, arms and legs.

The ultra-Orthodox Jews have also led violent protests against swimming pools, cinemas and other establishments they consider immoral.

Inte Ban

The anti-Inte drive also extended to include a demand for banning ultra-Orthodox sites.

“Many Jewish souls have already fallen into its trap,” 21 rabbis said in a joint letter submitted to the media Friday.

The rabbis said even sites meant for the arch-conservative religious community contained “lies and terrible impurity.”

“Recently, the so-called Haredi sites have gone overboard,” the letter says.

“They disseminate forbidden slander, gossip, lies, terrible impurity and abominations.”

Despite the rabbis’ drive, the number of ultra-orthodox Israelis going online is growing rapidly.

Bezeq, the leading Israeli phone company, said that one- quarter of ultra-orthodox households have a Bezeq inte connection.

“Inte use is growing all the time,” Dov Povarsky, editor-in-chief of the popular Bechadrei Charedim (“In the rooms of the ultra-orthodox”) website, said.

He said many Jews are against such Haredi notions.

“The rabbis are right that the inte is an instrument that can go in unwanted directions,” he said.

“But it is an instrument that cannot be ignored. I don't think they are really trying to stop it outright.”

Source: IslamOnline

Pakistan to Deport Five Suspects to US

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is planning to deport five Americans held on terror links to the United States after they were grilled by a special FBI team in the capital Islamabad. “A five-member FBI team along with Pakistani intelligence officials, a legal advisor and a political counsellor of the US embassy Islamabad is engaged in grilling the five Americas about their alleged links with militant organizations and future plans,” a senior interior ministry official told IslamOnline.

“As soon as the investigations are over, they will be deported to their country.”

Pakistani authorities arrested the five on Wednesday in the north-eastern city of Sarghoda, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of Pakistan's capital Islamabad

Their local host has been handed over to police on a remand by a local court.

Pakistan Militant Groups Pictures of the detainees shown on the private Express TV station Friday showed five young men, most of them clean-shaven, in Western clothing. “It’s not the matter concerning to the US only,” said the interior ministry official.

“We too are concerned about this. Therefore, our interrogators are also grilling them to know about their aides here, and their future plans.”

IOL correspondent made repeated efforts to reach the Foreign Office spokesman, Abdul Basit, to comment on the status of the five detainees, but he was not available.

US President Barack Obama has promised an investigation into how and why the five men left the US for Pakistan.

Pakistan is in the grip of a fierce insurgency, with more than 2,680 people killed in attacks since July 2007.

No Access

The mother of Umar Farooq, a US national of Pakistani origin, confirmed that her son would be deported.

“I am not giving access to my son, which is my fundamental legal right,” Sahiba Farooq told reporters.

“I don’t know anything about his condition and his legal future.”

District Police Officer, Dr Usman Anwer, told IOL that the five detainees are being grilled by intelligence agents in a police station in Sarghoda.

“They were on a special mission here,” he said, adding that the documents recovered from their possession suggest that.

However, intelligence sources said that the five Americans are being questioned at a safe house of Intelligence Bureau.

“We are interrogating them about their possible links with Jesh-e-Mohammad in Pakistan,” the interior ministry official said.

“But Americans are concerned that how did the JM people manage to contact these people in America.

“They are considering this a serious blow to their internal security, if outlawed organizations manage to reach their youths while sitting here in Pakistan.”

Source: IslamOnline

Swiss builds minaret in protest against ban

BUSSIGNY -- A Swiss businessman appalled by the recent blanket ban on the construction of mosque minarets in his country has built a mock minaret above his building near the western city of Lausanne in protest at the ban.

"It was scandalous that the Swiss voted for the ban," Guillaume Morand, who owns a chain of shoe stores, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday, December 10.

"This is shameful."

The businessman, who is not a Muslim, explained that the he had constructed the mock minaret to protest the ban and send a message of peace.

More than 57 percent of Swiss voters backed on Sunday, November 29, a far-right call for a blanket ban on the construction of minarets, a surprise result to the government and Swiss Muslim.

The Swiss People's Party (SVP) -- Switzerland's biggest party -- had forced a referendum under Swiss regulations on the issue after collecting 100,000 signatures within 18 months from eligible voters.

The SVP claims minarets are a symbol of Shari`ah and are thus incompatible with the Swiss legal system.

The campaign poster showed the Swiss flag covered in missile-like minarets and the portrait of a woman covered with a black chador and veil.

There are nearly 160 mosques and prayer rooms in Switzerland, mainly in disused factories and warehouses.

Only four of them have minarets, none of them used to raise the Azan, the call to prayer, which is banned.

Islam is the second religion in the European country after Christianity, with Muslims estimated at nearly 400,000.

* Dangerous

Morand blamed other political parties in Switzerland for not having campaigned against the far-right motion ahead of the referendum.

"They were all against it but they did not explain the issue clearly to the country," he said.

The result comes as a major surprise and a slap in the face of the government, which has strongly opposed the ban.

The parliament, all major political parties, Roman Catholic bishops and Jewish rabbis had all opposed the ban and urged voters to vote it down.

Morand asserted that the mock minaret, which has been in place since Tuesday, has generated a lot of interest.

He will wait and see before deciding if further action was needed to push his point.

The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) urged Swiss authorities Thursday to annul the vote, warning it could fuel similar moves across Europe.

"The Swiss authorities should use parliamentary and judicial means to reverse the decision," Pakistani ambassador Zamir Akram told AFP.

Envoys from the pan-Islamic body's 56 member states brought the request to the Swiss ambassador to the UN in Geneva Dante Martinelli.

Akram warned that the Swiss move could encourage similar actions in other European countries.

"The threat can also spread to other countries in Europe where there are right-wing groups who want also to target the Muslim community. This can cause violence against Muslim communities in these countries," he said.

"There were already some attacks, some vandalism against the mosque here in Geneva, it's a very dangerous trend."

The Swiss referendum had already started echoing across Europe, with calls in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy for similar measures to ban minarets.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the far-right Dutch Freedom Party, urged his government to make a similar referendum possible in the Netherlands.

In Belgium, the right-wing Vlaams Belang said it would submit a decree to the Flemish regional parliament to ban minarets in the country.

The anti-immigrant Northern League also called for minaret ban in Italy.
Source: IslamOnline

Euro-Muslims Green Initiative

On the occasion of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, Euro-Muslims section would like to be part of the efforts aiming at saving the planet. Our new green initiative has one aim: to keep this planet beautiful and habitable for the coming generations.

We invite the Muslim communities — individuals and organizations — across Europe to share their stories, photos, and videos about any activities that aim to save and protect the environment.

We also focus on the role of mosques and Muslim organizations in raising Muslims' awareness — through flyers, environment-oriented sermons, and campaigns — on how they can live with a minimum negative impact on the environment.

Pakistan: Instability and Regional Politics

It appears that Washington is going to further increase pressure on Pakistan to have its all-out involvement in the US new strategy in Afghanistan. As part of this strategy, it is asking Pakistan to expand its operation to North Waziristan and other adjoining areas, in addition to its current operation in South Waziristan.

News reports and analysis pieces in the US media that say that Taliban’s leadership council is now in Pakistan's border area of Quetta, and those that state that Mullah Omar has shifted to Karachi are seemingly an integral part of this new US strategy.

Also reports that the Southern parts of Punjab need an operation, and that terrorists may get control of Pakistan’s nuclear assets come in compliance with the US strategy too.

Some analysts further believe that there is a link between the current wave of violence in Pakistan, including the attacks on some of the most sensitive locations related to the security establishment, and the US new strategy. They attribute this to the US desire to increase pressure on Pakistan.

An important factor in drawing such conclusions is the growing US-India strategic relations, and the Indian presence in Afghanistan, which most Pakistanis, including many security officials, consider as a direct threat to Pakistan.

Impact of Afghan Strategy

Washington, while is in hurry to have an honorable exit from Afghanistan, appears unclear as to how it can really achieve all of its objectives, the immediate and long–term ones.

Knowing that the allies in Afghanistan are also not willing to stay for long, it has been putting every kind of pressure on Pakistan for a direct engagement in the conflict, but its success, so far, can only be regarded as partial. While, on the other hand, the situation in Afghanistan is continuing to deteriorate on almost all counts: security, polity, and governance.

In the backdrop of increasing domestic and international public opinion; pressures on Obama administration to pullout from Afghanistan, or to show some tangible success in making it a stable, peaceful, democratic, and a corruption-free state have stressed out the administration.

Furthermore, the lack of showing some tangible achievements, even symbolic, in eliminating Al-Qaeda, is contributing to nervousness in coming up with a quick and clear road-map.

The stress on the administration has further mounted due to the lack of success on the other two important fronts of foreign policy, namely Iran and the Middle East. Negative developments are unabated and no real change has been achieved so far.

In a scenario, where the mid-term Congress elections are coming closer, it is not difficult to understand how important it is for the Obama administration to create a sense of achievement among the American public.

Regional Rivalry

This perception is certainly not baseless. In this regard, it is significant to note what two senior State Department officials told journalists a few weeks ago in Washington that India and the US "were now set to unveil a new template for deepening strategic partnership, on key global challenges, ranging from counter terrorism to non proliferation and climate change".

They were commenting on the recent visit of the Indian Prime Minister to the USA. Furthermore, they said: "The [Indo-US] partnership may change the course of history in the 21st century".

Amid growing US-Indian Relations, one should keep in mind the fact that the US still needs the Pakistani army deployed in its western border, where it can even be involved in Afghanistan.

Realizing the prevailing perception in Pakistan, the US has been assuring Pakistan that it should not take India as a threat, while asking India to start its negotiations with Pakistan. Going even further, there are reports stating that the US is trying to motivate the two countries to have some kind of cooperation in Afghanistan.

However, chances of the US being successful in convincing either India or Pakistan for such an engagement are very remote.

Continuous US engagement in the region, with a deficit of trust on Pakistan, is what India would like to be carried on. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement, on his arrival to the US on Nov. 22, that "Pakistan’s objectives in Afghanistan are not necessarily in harmony with American objectives" is an indication of such thinking.

In one way, Singh is right. Pakistan's long term interests and its threat perceptions are quite different to what America or India may have in the region.

Now that America has already made it public that communication with the Taliban is taking place, and some new arrangement is in the offing, how can Pakistan put all its eggs in one basket. Particularly, when it has obtained the evidence of Indian involvement in the increasing unrest and violence in Pakistan.

Thus, despite all difficulties Pakistan is facing, it does not seem viable that it would accept more American pressure beyond the limits.

A Possible Solution

Pakistan's real problem is to develop a national consensus on dealing with the situation. It should not be a problem as such. The public opinion has remained, by and large, consistent with regard to Pakistan's participation in the US "War on Terror", and this has been shown in several opinion surveys.

Though the opinion of how to deal with Taliban has been varying at different points of time, cooperation with the US has not been endorsed by the people in Pakistan. Pakistan's state institutions and the governments of the time have not been consistent with the public opinion. This has, certainly, weakened the state and its security institutions, polarized the society, and destabilized the country.

In the post-Musharraf era, the bargaining power of the government has further defected, as the US has been keeping direct contacts with both the army and the civilian leadership, and even with the opposition leaders. It will continue doing this.

The leadership in Pakistan needs to focus on the institutional decision making, and on narrowing down the gap between the people and the government. This would give the decision makers, in Pakistan, the real and required strength to deal with the external pressures.

In the final analysis of the situation, it is the Pakistani people's resolve that will determine the future course of Pakistan's policy.

So, while the apparent question before the US policy–makers has been decided, that is sending more troops to Afghanistan, the challenges for Washington in dealing with the situation are much deeper and complicated.

Coming up with a comprehensive and sustainable policy that is capable of achieving all objectives in the region and satisfying the domestic and international public opinion does not seem to be achievable.

The US has already compromised the objectives it had defined while coming to Afghanistan. Only time will tell how many more compromises the US will have to make in the near future.

By Khalid Rahman is the Director General of the Islamabad based think tank Institute of Policy Studies.

Denmark and the Hijacking of COP 15

During the first week of official discussions at the UN Climate Change Conference, most of the talks are taking place behind closed doors. But information has a tendency to slip out.

On the very first day word came that there are two different texts proposed. But it was only on the second day that this fact was confirmed. The media frenzy began amidst the anger at what came to be known as the "leaked Danish text".

The problem started when a secret draft of a document, prepared by Denmark, the US, and the UK at least, was leaked to The Guardian.

Developing countries became furious with the text, which was seen as an attempt to hijack the discussions with a new one that is formed between developed countries, not taking into account the developing world.

Lumumba Di-Aping, chief negotiator of the G77 bloc (a group consisting of 133 developing countries), said they have been asked to sign "a death pact" through this document.

The document sets targets for all countries except the least developed countries (LDC) – contrary to the Kyoto Protocol which had emission targets for industrialized countries only (which are known under the Kyoto Protocol as Annex-I countries).

In addition, financial and technological aid to the developing world – which is a large issue at the COP15 – will be linked to the countries fulfilling certain targets set for them. So if they do not meet these targets, they get no money. The money will be supplied by the World Bank, rather than going directly to the developing countries.

Di-Aping, in a dramatic show, went up on stage and stood there crying. The room was silent at the sight of a negotiator in this state. A few minutes afterwards he apologized and said that where he comes from in Sudan, it was "better to stand and cry than to walk away." The G77/China bloc issued a statement saying that the Danish text "threatens the success" of discussions in Copenhagen.

However, Kim Carstensen, leader of the WWF Global Climate Initiative, said discussions should not focus on the Danish text. He said it was two weeks old and should not be discussed here.

"That text is put on the shelf. What we are looking at now is the negotiations which we have been working on for a long while."

But many are skeptic. If the document is not up for negotiation, why was it shown now? And why was it shown to certain countries only?

James Hay, the spokesperson for the UN Climate Change Secretariat, said that it is among the proposals on the table at the discussions, stressing there were at least five proposals and none of them had gone through yet. "But this document has simply been resurrected from the dead really."

He added that he was sure the Danish government must have had good intentions.

"Good intentions or not, this is a complete mistake," Rasmus Vincentz, a climate consultant from Danish Energy Management, told IslamOnline.net. "This was totally unnecessary."

Tuvalu, a small Pacific island nation, called for suspension of the COP15 and for transparent discussions.

"The Danes holding secret back-room meetings with a few select countries is also deeply disappointing - the world expects the host country be neutral," said Andy Atkins, the Executive Director of Friends of the Earth, in a statement she issued.

COP15 was suspended before lunch, but resumed again shortly after.

Mohammed Yahia is an editor in the Health & Science section at IslamOnline.net. He has a degree in pharmacology from Cairo University, Egypt. You can contact him by sending an e-mail to ScienceTech@islam-online.net

America’s Know Islam Mosque

WASHINGTON – The Islamic Center, the oldest mosque in Washington DC, is not only a favorite destination of resident and visiting Muslims, but also many non-Muslims who come seeking knowledge about the Muslim faith.

"We try to spread knowledge of Islam as the Noble Qur’an teaches us; through wisdom and good guidance," Imam Abdullah M. Khouj, the center's director, told IslamOnline.net in an interview inside his office.

The historic mosque, located at the heart of Washington on Massachusetts Avenue, is a destination for non-Muslims from America and beyond who come to join its popular tours.

"Everyday we receive from 10-600 people," says Imam Khouj.

Some of the tours are for State Department officials going to serve in the Muslim world or students going to study in Muslim countries.

"They come to the center and we give them lectures and seminars on the situation in the Middle East and what to expect and how to behave in a Muslim country," explains imam Khouj.

The Islamic Center is the oldest mosque in the Washington Metropolitan area.

*

Washington's Oldest Mosque

"Building the mosque started in 1947, and it was opened for the public in 1952," says imam Khouj.

When opened, the mosque was the largest Muslim place of worship in the Western Hemisphere.

Khouj says the idea of building the mosque was first born in 1944, a time when there was not a single mosque in the US capital.

"It was the collaborative effort of Muslims here and ambassadors of Islamic states," he explains.

"It was in the funeral of the Turkish ambassador at that time where they discussed the possibility of having a place for Muslims to practice their religion in the US, and this is how the mosque came to existence."

The Center is administered by a board of directors comprising all ambassadors from Muslim countries accredited to the US.

Know Islam

During the popular tours, mosque officials also give information about Islam, its teachings and Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and answer questions from curious visitors.

"Many ask about the status of Jesus Christ in Islam, and I answer them that you cannot be a true Muslim if you do not believe in Jesus," says Abbassie Koroma, coordinator for group visits.

"Others ask me that if Islam is tolerant and peaceful then why there are so many Muslims who are terrorists. I answer that Islam has nothing to do with the wrong doing of individuals."

Koroma was speaking after finishing a tour for a group from a Christian Sunday school who listened attentively as he spoke about Islam’s five pillars and what is meant to be a Muslim.

"We came because I wanted the students to understand about Muslims, their religion," Tom Clumet, of the Sunday school, told IOL.

Dean, one of the students, joined the tour because his best friend is a Muslim and he wanted to know more about his religion.

He was fascinated with what he heard.

"I found the information I got very helpful. I feel I know Islam better now definitely."

The Center has welcomed over the year many high profile dignitaries, including several presidents.

It was the mosque chosen by then President George W. Bush on September 17, 2001, only days after 9/11 attacks, to speak to Americans about Islam.
The Islamic Center, the oldest mosque in Washington Metropolitan area, offers a variety of services to the local Muslim community.

Services

Like mosques across the US, the Islamic Center is offering a variety of services to the local Muslim community.

"This place is the center for every Muslim here in the area," says Khouj, the director.

"We try to be an educational, cultural and social center besides being a religious place."

The mosque contains a big library with all kinds of books on Islam, and it has classes to teach Arabic, Qur’an, Islamic jurisprudence and other subjects of religion.

"Unfortunately the center’s space does not allow us to build a school here, but we managed to arrange Saturday and Sunday classes for six grades."

The mosque is also involved in the community’s social life and tries to solve some of their problems.

"We do marriage counseling, we help people understand procedures of funerals and burials, we try to help people who are not married yet to get married," says imam Khouj.

"We bought a large cemetery and it is available for Muslims to bury their dead for free, because the cost of burial here in the US is extremely expensive."

But the service the Islamic Center is most proud of is its da`wah program.

"We have a large number of people who accept Islam here every month," says imam Khouj.

"We make a seminar for new Muslims who, in order to become involved in their new religion, will have to understand and have a clear vision instead of just following certain methods."

The Islamic center director also asserts that their outreach extends beyond the mosque premises.

"We have participants to help us send book packages to institutions across the US, especially in prisons where people want to know about Islam," he says.

"And we received letters from officials at some prisons thanking us because after the prisoners accept Islam their behavior changes and they become better human beings.

Khouj believes helping to spread the message of Islam is a main role for any mosque.

"We send a lot of people to schools, organizations and prisons to give lectures on Islam.

"We try very hard to hold to our religion and represent Islam as it should be represented."

No Winner in Iraq Election Compromise

BAGHDAD – There were no winners and losers in the long battle fought over the new election law and the true winners will be decided through the ballot bozes on Election Day, experts believe.

"In the eyes of the locals, Sunnis were the winners of the political battle," Khalid Jaffer, a political analyst who also works as government’s consultant, told IslamOnline.net.

"But we know that at the end of the process, Shiites will be able to overcome the problem and respond for the majority of seats," he contends.

"And after the polls, even if Sunnis try to boycott their decisions, being in majority and with Kurds support, they will follow with their own calendar without Sunnis interventions."

After weeks of wrangling that led to the postponing of the January elections, lawmakers finally agreed upon a new election law, paving the way for the vote to take place.

Authorities have since declared March 6 as the Election Day.

Elections was first postponed after Vice-President Tarek al-Hashemi, a Sunni, vetoed an earlier draft of the law over failure to give fair representation to Iraqis who fled the country after the 2003 invasion, mostly Sunnis.

The law was passed before midnight on Sunday, December 6, in an extraordinary session with MPs approving an explanatory memorandum to the new elections law and distribution of parliamentary seats.

It increasing the parliament seats to 325 seats, 310 of them will be allocated for the provinces and 15 compensational seats, from which ethnic minorities will receive eight seats and the Kurds three additional seats.

"The new memorandum helps the Sunni interests but wont make a big difference when important decisions have to be made," Aboudy Hayet Majeed, a political analyst and writer, believes.

"If Shiites or Kurds had felt threatened by Hashemi’s veto, they would not have accepted his demands. They know that they are holding the important seats and at the end they will keep being the ones who decide what is better or worse for Iraq."

Election Test

Experts agree that regardless of the compromises made to get the lection law passed and pave the way for the vote to take place; true winners are those who will do better at the ballot boxes.

"Each political group in Iraq will fight to get more representation inside the parliament," Abbas Ibraheem Massad, a political analyst and professor at Baghdad University, told IOL.

"The delay was a response to Sunnis exigencies that alleged they were in disadvantage beside Shiites and Kurds.

"They might see the new resolution as a victory, but the reality comes after elections and when polls are counted with Shiites wining the majority," he asserted.

"Although they (Sunnis) guaranteed more seats to overcome the refugees' problems, it will be hard for them to make final decisions in the government with the main seats and most of the provinces run by Shiite politicians, leaving a gap of responsibility and low support to minorities."

The upcoming election is an important moment for United States because its troop withdrawal plans depend on stability after the polls.

"Sunnis were trying to get more representations by using refugees as an excuse," Kurdish analyst Baraw Serbest told IOL.

"Kurds and Shiites agreed to Hashemi’s request as a way to keep stability and prevent eruption of violence by groups who indirectly support Sunni politicians," he argued.

"I think that it was an understandable decision but we cannot say that someone won because the only time we can have this answer is after polls results are released."

By Afif Sarhan, IOL Correspondent

Receiving Nobel, Obama Defends War

OSLO – Receiving the world's most prestigious peace prize, US President Barack Obama defended on Thursday, December 10, war as not only necessary but morally justified to bring peace.

"War is sometimes necessary, and war is at some level an expression of human feelings," Obama told an audience of international dignitaries at Oslo City Hall in his acceptance speech.

He admitted the complexity of being rewarded a peace prize while being the commander in chief of a country waging two wars.

"I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill. Some will be killed," Obama said in a televised speech.

"And so I come here with an acute sense of the cost of armed conflict -- filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other."

Obama, the first sitting US president to win the prestigious prize in decades, defended the use of military force.

"[America] has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms," he said.

"The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans."

Only days ago, Obama ordered the deployment of 30,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan, which his country invaded in 2001.

American troops are still deployed in Iraq, which they invaded in 2003 to toppled the Saddam Hussein regime.

Protests

Many across the world were disappointed by Obama's elevation to a pantheon of winners alongside the likes of Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King before he has even spent a year in office.

"Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize -- Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela -- my accomplishments are slight," Obama admitted.

Making the decision in October, the Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for nurturing a new era of engagement and multilateralism in US foreign policy.

Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland again defended the decision at the prize ceremony.

"History can tell us a great deal about lost opportunities," he said.

"It is now, today, that we have the opportunity to support President Obama's ideas. This year's prize is indeed a call to action for all of us."

But that was not enough to satisfy disappointed hundreds, if not thousands, across the world.

Environmentalists, anti-war and anti-nuke organizations planned demonstrations in Oslo throughout the day.

Outside the Nobel Committee headquarter, protesters held up a banner reading "Obama you won the prize, now earn it."

Halfway around the globe, in Pakistan and Afghanistan, many blamed Obama for violence in their countries.

"The Nobel prize is for those who have made achievements, but Obama is a killer," Jabir Aftab, an engineer living in Pakistan's bombing-ravaged city of Peshawar, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Since Obama took office, US drone strikes targeting militants in the northwest tribal belt have increased and claimed more civilian lives.

"He is the president of a country which has a history of bloodshed and rises to a quarrel. How was he selected for this prize?"

In the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, 35-year-old Mullah sat on the side of the road selling second-hand mobiles, urging Obama to prove he deserved the prize.

"As it is, the 30,000 extra troops on their way to Afghanistan will add to war and violence 30,000 times."

Amanullah, a 45-year-old shopkeeper, was equally scathing.

"This is not a peace prize. This is a war prize."

IslamOnline