Islami News: Dec 18, 2009

Pakistan minister faces arrest bid

Pakistani authorities have issued an arrest warrant for the country's interior minister on corruption charges, following a supreme court ruling that nullified a deal granting officials amnesty from criminal investigations.

The warrant for Rehman Malik's arrest was issued by the National Accountability Office on Friday, two days after the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was declared void and unconstitutional.

Imran Khan, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, said that the warrant was the first to be issued against a senior official since the NRO was ruled illegal.

"Rehman Malik had a number of cases against him. The key one is something called the 'yellow cab' scheme. There were financial irregularities declared against him, that he was involved in handing out loans for yellow cabs," Khan said.

"He was convicted in that case and he appealed it. The appeal was going through when on, October 5, 2007, the NRO came into effect.

"That [ordinance] was struck down [this week], so that case has been reopened."

Resignations demanded

The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), Pakistan's main opposition party, has called on Asif Ali Zardari, the country's president, to resign after the supreme court's ruling.

"On the moral ground, he should realise that in this situation he is no longer able to effectively run the government, run the country, [or] represent Pakistan within Pakistan or outside," Raja Zafarul-Haq, the chairman of the PML-N, told Al Jazeera.

He said that his party was "not in a hurry" to call for Zardari's impeachment, but warned: "Maybe there will be a public reaction if he decides not to step down."

Earlier, Khawaja Asif, a senior leader PML-N leader, said: "It will be in his own interest, it will be in the interest of his party and it will be good for the system."

Pakistan's constitution guarantees Zardari immunity while in office.

But the constitution also states that presidential candidates must be pious, honest and truthful and not have been convicted in a criminal case.

Pakistan's anti-corruption body has called for travel bans to be imposed on more than 250 people since the supreme court ruling.

Ahmed Mukhtar, the country's defence minister, told local television late on Thursday that he had been due to go on an official visit to China but that his name had been put on an "exit control list" restricting travel.

"I was informed that my name is on the exit list ... federal investigation authorities officials have said that I cannot leave the country," he said.

"It was in connection with a corruption case. But there is no corruption case against me - it is only an inquiry which is pending against me for the past 12 years. I will strongly defend myself in the court."

Cases expected

The supreme court's decision on Wednesday declaring the amnesty agreement as being unconstitutional paves the way for corruption cases against Zardari and thousands of other officials covered by the amnesty to be revived.

A number of cases were pending against Zardari when it was announced by Pervez Musharraf, then Pakistan's president, that he and others would be immune from prosecution under the 2007 National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

Musharraf declared the NRO while under pressure to hold elections and end eight years of military rule.

Although Zardari has spent years in jail over corruption charges, he alleges the charges were politically-motivated and questions hang over whether he was ever actually convicted.

Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) won elections in 2008, restoring civilian rule, but the NRO expired at the end of last month and the PPP did not have enough support to renew the ordinance in parliament.

The president already faces low public approval ratings and any political trouble in Pakistan is likely to be watched very closely by the West which wants Islamabad to focus on combating Islamist fighters.
Source: Al Jazeera

US and Russia 'close' to arms deal

The United States and Russia have failed to reach an agreement on a pact to reduce Cold War stock piles of nuclear arms, but their leaders expressed hope that a deal is close.

Barack Obama, the US president, and Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, met on the sidelines of the climate change summit in Copenhagen on Friday to discuss the terms of a deal to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start).

The treaty, which places strict limits on US and Russian nuclear arsenals, expired on December 5.

The two leaders acknowledged that they were unlikely to sign a deal this year, but they pledged to continue talks on the issue.

"We've been making excellent progress," Obama told reporters on Friday.

"We are quite close to an agreement. And I'm confident that it will be completed in a timely fashion."

'Details remain'

Medvedev said a few "details" still needed to be discussed for a new deal to be reached, though he did not elaborate.

"Our positions are very close and almost all the issues that we've been discussing for the last month are almost closed," he said.

"A few technical details have remained which nevertheless need to be finalised in such an important agreement and I hope that we will do this in quite a short time."

Though the treaty has expired, both countries have agreed to continue to honour its main provisions, until the completion and legal ratification of a successor treaty.

The broad aim of the new treaty is to reduce the number of deployed warheads below the 1,700-2,200 allowed under Start.
Source: Agencies

Hope Is What We All Need

Reading and reflecting on the Prophet's Hijrah from Makkah to Madinah, I see "real" hope is present in most, if not all, its events and scenes. Prophet Muhammad, the most successful and effective teacher that humanity has ever known, never lost hope in Allah's help and in spreading Islam—with its peaceful and just message—all over the world.

Before the Hijrah, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and his followers faced the most brutal and merciless persecution and hostilities at the hands of the unbelievers of Quraysh, the Prophet's tribe. The Prophet, however, never lost hope in disseminating the noble message of Islam. Rather, he used to encourage his followers to keep patient and forbearing in the hardest and most difficult times while anticipating Allah's help and assistance.

Khabbab ibn Al-Arrat narrated: We complained to Allah's Messenger (about the unbelievers' persecution and brutality against Muslims) while he was leaning against his sheet cloak in the shade of the Ka`bah. We said, "Will you ask Allah to help us? Will you invoke Allah for us?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Among those who were before you (a believer) used to be seized and, a pit used to be dug for him and then he used to be placed in it. Then a saw used to be brought and put on his head which would be split into two halves. His flesh used to be combed with iron combs and removed from his bones, yet, all that did not cause him to revert from his religion. By Allah! This religion (Islam) will be completed (and triumph) till a rider (traveler) goes from San`a' (the capital of Yemen) to Hadramout fearing nobody except Allah and the wolf lest it should trouble his sheep, but you are impatient." (Al-Bukhari)

So, in the midst of trials and tribulations, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gave them the glad tiding that a day will soon come when Islam will spread and people will be secure and safe everywhere. The Prophet's heart was so full with hope and trust in Allah, even in the hardest times, that he used to see the victory of Islam as being very close. This, however, never made him fall short from working hard to achieve his goals.

On seeing his followers facing the most harsh treatment from the unbelievers of Quraysh, who fought the noble message of Islam by all possible means, Prophet Muhammad migrated to At-Ta'if to find supporters for the new call. Unfortunately, the people of Ta'if were not less than the unbelievers of Quraysh in harshness and hostility towards the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Nevertheless, the Prophet never lost hope and continued conveying the noble message as best as he could.

The Prophet's Hijrah from Makkah to Madinah shows how much his heart was filled with hope and trust in Allah. When he (peace and blessings be upon him) and his closest friend, Abu Bakr, left for Madinah, the unbelievers of Quraysh decided to block all roads leading out of Makkah and imposed heavy armed surveillance over all potential exits. A price of 100 camels was set upon the head of each one. Horsemen, infantry and tracks tracers scoured the country. Once, they even managed to reach the mouth of the cave where the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and Abu Bakr were hiding. When Abu Bakr saw the enemy at a very close distance, he whispered to the Prophet, "If any of them should look under his feet, he would see us." He (peace and blessings be upon him) calmed him, saying, "O Abu Bakr! What do you think of two (persons) the third of whom is Allah?" (Al-Bukhari)

Another brilliant scene that shows the Prophet's hope and full trust in Allah is the incident involving Suraqah ibm Malik. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: Suraqah ibn Malik followed us and I said, "We have been caught, O Allah's Messenger!' He said, "Don't grieve for Allah is with us." The Prophet invoked evil on him (i.e., Suraqah) and so the legs of his horse sank into the earth up to its belly. Suraqah then said, "I see that you have invoked evil on me. Please invoke good on me, and by Allah, I will cause those who are seeking after you to return." The Prophet invoked good on him and he was saved. Then, whenever he met someone on the way, he would say, 'I have looked for him here in vain.' So he caused whomever he met to return. Thus Suraqah fulfilled his promise. (Al-Bukhari) Some reports, furthermore, say that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) promised Suraqah the bracelet of Kisra, the King of the Persians. (See Ash-Shafi`i's Al-Umm).

The Hijrah as such implants real and unshaken hope in our hearts. Let's therefore work hard to change and improve our conditions and the status quo of our Ummah. This is possible, in sha' Allah, but it needs faith and constant efforts. Every member of the Muslim Ummah should play a role in making Islam regain its real position in the world. We should never lose hope in achieving this. This is a significant lesson from the Prophet's (peace and blessings be on him) Hijrah.

Hope is what we all need. A good practicing Muslim should be motivated by hope to bring himself closer to Allah. A sinful man should never lose hope in gaining Allah's forgiveness and pardon; he should not despair of Allah's mercy which is close to all penitent servants. Scholars and reformers should spare no efforts—motivated with this hope—to reform Muslim communities and spread peace and justice all over the world.

May Allah guide us all to what pleases Him and grant us happiness in this world and in the Hereafter.
Wael `Abdel-Mut`aal Shihab is the deputy managing editor of the IOL Shari`ah Department (English). He graduated from Al-Azhar University and got his master's from Al-Azhar in Islamic studies with a major in Islamic jurisprudence and its principles. He is working on his doctorate in the principles of Islamic jurisprudence.

US Muslims & Media...Lost Love

WASHINGTON – The Muslim community remains poles apart from the media industry in post- 9/11 America, where a severely negative image about Islam and Muslims is being projected by many media outlets in the absence of a clear Muslim media voice.

"We have a big problem; it’s that other people are shaping the story about us," Shahed Amanullah, editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com, told IslamOnline.net.

Media professionals agree that in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, the US media put much focus on Muslims, estimated between 7-8 millions.

In many cases the media narratives were mostly stereotypical, and Muslims suffered constant media campaigns depicting them and their religion as a threat from within.

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US Muslims, Media and Fort Hood Test

The latest episode came following the Fort Hood shooting tragedy last month, in which Maj. Nidal Hasan, a Muslim army psychiatrist, is accused of killing 13 fellow soldiers.

Many right-wing and conservative commentators have jumped on the wagon, using the attack to defame Islam and American Muslims.

"Since 9/11, the American Muslim community is on the receiving end. Its resources are sucked into defending its institutions and individuals," says Abdus Sattar Ghazali, editor of the American Muslim Perspective website.

"Despite all this, ironically, American Muslims are always blamed by the anti-Muslim and anti-Islam media commentators as well as right-wing religious and political leaders that they are not condemning the so-called 'Islamic terrorism'."

Ibrahim Hooper, Communication Director at the Council on American Muslim relations (CAIR), said they advise their community on how to respond to media misrepresentation.

"We made sessions in CAIR for Muslims on how to interact with the mainstream media outlets in the US."

Stephen Schwartz, head of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), America's largest Jewish movement, has accused American media of demonizing Islam and portraying Muslims as "satanic figures" since the 9/11 attacks.

Absent Voice

American Muslim media professionals believe their community has not learnt to use the media as a powerful tool to project their own image away from the stereotypes currently being propagates about them and their religion by many.

"Other groups in the US have their own media outlets. Latinos for example have national newspapers now," notes Amanullah, an award-winning journalist who writes regularly about the challenges and opportunities facing Islam in America.

"We have no national newspapers, magazines or TV stations."

Ghazali agrees that there is no major Muslim TV or radio network to project the news and analysis from the Muslim or Islamic point of view.

Even the few Muslim outlets present, he asserts, are speaking to their community rather than reaching out to the wider American society.

"There are some ethnic printed media such as newspapers in Arabic, English and Urdu languages which are popular only in the concerned community."

Omar Bin Abdullah, editor of Islamic Horizons – the largest circulating English-language Muslim periodical in the US and Canada – says that even the reach of the existing Muslim media is severely limited.

He says his publication goes to 60,000 homes, offices and libraries every two months.

"The distribution of other nonprofits is even smaller. If we are saying that we are 7 to 8 million, then a 100,000 copies for such a community is just too small."

Bin Abdullah regrets that even Muslim professionals are barely noticeable in the mainstream media.

"The one or two names we see may not even represent us, the mainstream Muslims."

But others contend that Muslims are not so far away from the media industry, but they are rather invisible.

"There are more Muslims working in the mainstream media than ever before. There are Muslims working in the CNN, ABC, New York Times," Edina Lekovic, Communications Director at the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), told IOL.

"But they either keep their Muslims identities aside and work without telling everybody about it, or they maintain a professional attitude and keep distant from the Muslim societies."

What Now?

Bin Abdullah, the Islamic Horizons editor, believes the solution for US Muslims media crisis is to have a national mainstream outlet that offers a Muslim view.

"Such positive representation will address the issue of spreading correct information about Islam.

"Even if we get smaller circulating policy-related publication, it will be most helpful."

But there are many challenges ahead of having a national Muslim outlet that can turn the situation around.

"It is not the lack of attention on the party of the community but lack of resources. American Muslim community is very educated but it lacks resources like the Jewish community," explains Ghazali, editor of the American Muslim Perspective website.

"I will also add that since 9/11, American Muslims are on the receiving end and its resources are sucked into defending its institutions and individuals implicated in high profile cases."

Amanullah disagrees.

"American Muslims are very well-off. The problem is that we probably started to understand the power of media at the time the power of media has failed," he argues.

"No body wants to invest in media now, not only Muslims."

He believes the diversity of American Muslims, in terms of languages and racial backgrounds, makes it very hard too be represented by a single media outlet.

"I don’t think the goal should be having a Muslim TV station," says MPAC’s Lekovic.

"The goal is to reach the general public, and for that we have to get involved in the mainstream media outlets.

"A Muslim outlet is important, but what is more important is to get trained, excel what we do and go where most of the audience goes."
By Dina Rabie, IOL Staff

World Leaders Fight for Climate Deal

COPENHAGEN – With fears of failure hinging over the UN summit, world leaders gathered in Copenhagen Friday, December 18, to nail down an agreement on fighting climate change.

"While the science of climate change is not in doubt, I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now,” US President Barack Obama told the conference, reported the BBC News Online.

“It hangs in the balance."

Obama warned world leaders that failure to reach an agreement risks opening dangerous splits in the bid to tackle global warming.

"This is not a perfect agreement, and no country would get everything that it wants," he said.

"The question is whether we will move forward together, or split apart."

Delegates from 193 countries have been huddling together for two weeks in Copenhagen to reach a binding deal to reduce carbon emission that trap the Sun's heat, inflicting potentially catastrophic climate damage.

Though the delegates reached consensus on financing and temperature targets, they failed to agree on the timing and degree of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

"Whatever the outcome, it looks bad for us," said a member of the Maldives delegation, the Indian Ocean archipelago which fears being swallowed up by rising sea levels in a matter of decades.

Developing and rich countries have been divided on the greenhouse emission cuts.

Negotiators agreed on an initial draft which called for a two degree Celsius cap on global temperatures, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

Scientists say a 2 degrees limit is the minimum effort to avoid some of the worst impacts of climate change including several metres sea level rise, extinctions and crop failures.

Deadlock

Fear of failure has grown in Copenhagen, with often bitter disputes on emissions targets between top polluters China and the US.

"There's lots of tension," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"But despite everything things are moving a little."

He, however, said there was still work to be done on ways to verify commitments on environmental action and on assistance to poor nations to adapt to climate change.

"We have to unblock this. There are some points that can't be ignored."

China and the US are mainly blamed for the deadlock.

"Through the whole process the real problem has been on the one hand the United States, who are not able to deliver sufficiently (and) on the other hand China, and they delivered less,” said Andreas Carlgren, the environment minister of EU president Sweden.

“And they have been really blocking again and again in this process, followed by a group of oil states. That's the real difference, the real confrontation behind this."

As the clock is ticking for the closure of the climate change talks, calls are growing for reaching an agreement.

"We stand before one of these rare and defining moments in history," said Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen.

"We must chart the course of the future of the planet.

"We must seize this great opportunity today. The time to act is now."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the leaders were "closer than ever to the world's first truly global agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions".

"Just hours remain to close these final gaps."

FBI Sows Fear: US Muslims

CAIRO — Angry with its tactics of sending informants into mosques and wiretapping communications, American Muslims warn that the FBI policies are sowing fear and mistrust.

“There is a sense that law enforcement is viewing our communities not as partners but as objects of suspicion,” Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), told The New York Times Friday, December 18.

“A lot of people are really, really alarmed about this.”

Mattson said many Muslims have cancelled trips abroad to avoid arousing suspicion.

American Muslims also are wary of whom they speak to, she noted.

Since 9/11 attacks, the FBI and American Muslims have worked to build a relationship of trust, sharing information both to fight terrorism.

But those relation have come under increasing strain recently.

Muslims are particularly infuriated by the FBI's planting of informants into mosques to provoke Muslim worshippers and trap unsuspecting youth.

The relations hit a new ebb after a local imam was shot dead by FBI agents in Dearborn last October.

“We are citizens who care about our country as much as everyone,” Wael Mousfar, president of the Arab Muslim American Federation, said.

“But people don’t know what to expect — who might report them for speaking about Middle East politics, what someone might get your teenage son to do.”

Earlier this year, a coalition of America's largest Muslim organizations threatened to halt cooperation with the law enforcement authorities over the FBI practices.

Divided FBI

Security experts blame the strained FBI-Muslim relations to the divisions inside the federal agency.

“There are some people in the bureau who believe, as I do, that the relationship with the Muslim community is crucial and must be developed with consistency,” said Michael Rolince, a former director of counterterrorism in the FBI’s Washington field office.

“And there are those who don’t.”

Rolince said some inside the FBI have always been leery of Islamic and Arab-American organizations, considering their loyalties to be divided.

Linda Sarsour, director of the Arab-American Association of New York, a social-services agency, agrees.

Sarsour said she was baffled when bonds built by Muslim groups with a New York FBI chief evaporated upon the arrival of his successor.

Security experts opine that the FBI-Muslim cooperation is crucial in fighting home-grown extremism.

“This is a national security issue,” said David Schanzer, who heads the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University.

“It’s absolutely vital that the FBI and the Muslim-American community clear the air and figure out how to work together.”