Young Jordanian Inspires Organ Donors

CAIRO – Though he lost his own son, Issam Abu Tawileh is proud that his beloved son has set an example for others to follow. “We are happy that others benefited from his organs,” Abu Tawileh told The National daily on Sunday, December 27.

“By his death he changed the course of life for five others.”

His 22-year-old son, Abdullah, a medical school student, died from a stroke earlier this month. He was pronounced clinically dead by doctors.

Despite his pains, the bereaved father decided to fulfil his son’s wish, donating his corneas, kidneys and liver to five Jordanians.

“I asked a religious scholar if it was OK to remove the plugs,” Abu Tawileh said, holding a photo of his son.

“I didn’t want him to suffer. And without thinking I told doctors I wanted to donate his organs.”

Fighting back his tears, Abu Tawileh recalls when he was first told by his son about his wish to donate his organs after his death.

Donating an Organ after Death Islam's View on Organ Transplants and Donations “We were sitting together and he told me ‘Dad, if anything happens to me, I would like to help others.’,” he recalled.

“I thought he was talking about giving his money to the poor, but he was talking about his organs. So I kicked him with my leg, teasing him the way I usually do.”

Legacy

Abdullah’s organ donation has spurred thousands of Jordanians to express desire to donate organs after their death.

“I am proud of my son,” he said, after 6,600 Jordanians offered to donate their organs after death.

There are estimated 2,505 Jordanians seeking live-saving transplants.

However, there are only between 250 to 300 who donate their organs every year.

“The supply is short,” said Ahmed Shaker, deputy director of The Society to Promote Organ Donations.

“We do not have a culture of organ donation due to the lack of awareness on how important they are in saving people’s lives.”

Shaker blames lack of knowledge and awareness for the poor organ donations in the Arab country.

"People do not understand what a brain-dead case means,” he said.

Jordan was the first country to declare a brain-dead person as legally dead in 1986.

“There are also religious misconceptions on whether organised religion sanctions organ donation, even though we confirmed in several of our seminars it is an act of philanthropy and fatwas already authorised it.

“Sometimes people say how am I going to see when God revives me after death? Am I going to be without my eyes?”

For Abu Tawileh, he has never been prouder of his son than now.

“What he got after his death is something he would not get in life,” he said.

“He was an excelling student who was going to graduate this year. He got so much praise from his friends that I didn’t realise how popular he was at university and how much he was loved.

“His funeral procession was so huge. I wish I had known my son more,” he said.

“He has left his legacy behind and set an example for others to follow.”

Source: IslamOnline

Malaysia plans 19 bond sales to fund development projects

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia plans to conduct 19 bond sales next year to help raise funds for development projects and fin-ance its budget deficit.

The government will sell notes maturing in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2030, comprising both conventional and Islamic securities, according to a sale calendar published by Bank Negara Malaysia on its website. The central bank, which conducts debt auctions on behalf of the treasury, didn't provide details on the amount to be raised at each debt sale.

Malaysia raised a record 88.5 billion ringgit (Dh95.42 billion) this year, a 48 per cent increase from 2008 and the most since records began in 1991.

It will step up "fiscal discipline" next year to help narrow the deficit to 40.5 billion ringgit, or 5.6 per cent of gross domestic product, the finance ministry said in October.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has unveiled 67-billion ringgit of stimulus measures in the past year and the central bank has maintained its overnight policy rate at 2 per cent since February to help the nation climb out of its recession. The government also raised 5 billion ringgit from the sale of 2012 bonds to retail investors in May.

The finance ministry estimated the budget shortfall for 2009 at 51.1 billion ringgit, or 7.4 per cent of GDP, the highest proportion since 1987. Islamic debt, or sukuk, pays a profit rate to investors from an underlying asset instead of interest, which is prohibited by Sharia.
Source: Gulf News

Marseille Mosque Exposes Europe Angst

CAIRO – Plans to build a grand mosque in France’s second-largest city of Marseille have set off a new wave of xenophobic fears, exposing the deep-seated anti-Muslim sentiments in the country and across the European continent. “I’m going to bomb it when it opens,” an older French man told The New York Times Monday, December 28, wishing to be unnamed.

“There are a lot of them (Muslims) already, and this will bring more of them, and there will be trouble.”

Plans are underway to build a $33-million grand mosque in the port city in April.

“It’s a good symbol of assimilation,” said Noureddine Cheikh, the head of the Marseille Mosque Association.

The new worship house will have a minaret that would flash a beam of purple light – instead of Adhan -- for a couple of minarets to call for prayers.

But the mosque plans have stirred opposition from far-rightists in the city, where Muslims make up a quarter of its more than 1.5 million population.

The far-right Regional Front and local politicians have filed lawsuits to block the Muslim building.

“Today everyone agrees and reacts the same way,” said Youcef Mammeri, a writer on Islam in France and member of the Joint Council of Muslims of Marseille.

“Today we realize being a secular Muslim or a moderate or a radical Muslim is not the right question. It’s about being Muslim.”

Mammeri said that racism in France has moved from being anti-Arab to anti-Muslim.

“A terrible regression.”

France is home to nearly seven million Muslims, the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.

Islamophobia

Analysts agree that the Marseille mosque opposition reflects the growing anti-Muslim sentiments in the country and across Europe.

“Today in Europe the fear of Islam crystallizes all other fears,” said Vincent Geisser, a scholar of Islam and immigration at the French National Center for Scientific Research.

“In Switzerland, it’s minarets. In France, it’s the veil, the burqa and the beard.”

Last month, Swiss voters backed an initiative by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party to ban mosque minarets in the country.

In France, a heated debate is raging about the wearing of burka in the country, which banned hijab in schools and public places in 2004.

The French government has also started a three-month debate on French national identity, which is seen as targeting the Muslim presence in the country.

Opposition is also growing in Denmark over plans to build the first two large mosques in the capital Copenhagen.

Geisser said whenever Europe’s Muslims establish themselves as a permanent part of the national scene, the more xenophobic anxiety grows.

“All these symbols reveal a deeper, more lasting presence of Islam,” he said.

“It’s the passage of something temporary to something that is implanted and takes root,” he said, noting that many Europeans are worried that their identity is eroding.

“There’s a feeling that Europe is becoming smaller and less important. Europe is like an old lady, who whenever she hears a noise thinks it’s a burglary.”

The anxiety, which stems from economic crisis, fear of globalization, increasing immigration and birth rate falls, is translated into a specific one, he said.

“(Islam) a box in which everyone expresses their fears.”

Source: IslamOnline

US War on Terror Reaches Yemen

CAIRO — The US has opened a new front against the Al-Qaeda in Yemen amid reports the militant group has exploited the country's instability to regroup and build new bases, The New York Times reported on Monday, December 28.

A former top official of the CIA told the daily that the spy agency sent many of its top field operatives with counterterrorism experience to Yemen a year ago.

Senior military officers also confirmed that members of America's most secretive special operations commandos have also begun training Yemeni security forces.

The US plans to spend over $70 million in the next 18 months on training and equipping Yemeni military, police and coast guard forces.

It is also helping Yemen with military hardware and intelligence in its efforts to crack down on Al-Qaeda.

The American daily revealed last week that Washington provided Yemen with firepower and intelligence to conduct a series of deadly strikes on Al-Qaeda in the past 10 days.

"Yemen now becomes one of the centers of that fight," Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told Fox News.

"We have a growing presence there, and we have to, of Special Operations, Green Berets, intelligence," added the influential lawmaker who visited Yemen in August.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American regional commander, and John O. Brennan, President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser, paid separate secret visits to Yemen last summer.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to expanded overt and covert assistance in the fight against Al-Qaeda.

Washington fears Yemen could become Al Qaeda’s next operational and training hub.

Growing Threat

Al-Qaeda has reportedly been gaining more ground in Yemen in recent years.

"Al-Qaeda started in Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, but it was raised and nurtured in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other places," Yemeni terrorism expert Saeed Obaid told the Washington Post Monday.

"Now it is clear that it is coming back to its roots and growing in Yemen."

Obaid said Al-Qaeda has recently escalated efforts to exploit Yemen's instability to regroup and prepare for major operations against the US and its allies.

"Yemen has become the place to best understand Al-Qaeda and its ambitions today."

The Yemeni government is battling Shiite rebels in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.

Abdulelah Hider Shaea, a Yemeni journalist, says the group now has about 100 core operatives in addition to countless sympathizers and immense tribal support in southern and eastern provinces.

Shaea, who interviewed Al-Qaeda leader in the Arab Peninsula this year, said he saw several Muslims with Australian, German and French citizenships.

The group has launched five attacks this year, compared with 22 in 2008, said Western diplomats, noting the targets have been higher-profile.

Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the head of Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism operations, hardly escaped an Al-Qaeda suicide attack in August.

Last month, the group ambushed and killed three senior Yemeni security officers and four bodyguards in Hadramawt province.

There have been increasing Yemeni ties to plots against the US.

Washington is already investigating a possible Yemen link to an attempt by a young Nigerian to blow up a plane over Detroit on Friday.

Umar Farouk Mutallab, 23, reportedly told American investigators he got the explosive device from an Al-Qaeda associate in Yemen.

A man charged in the June 1 killing of a soldier at a recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas, had traveled to Yemen.

Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-born American imam, has been linked to Nidal Malik Hasan, the American Army major who faces murder charges over the Fort Hood shooting spree.

Al-Qaeda operatives bombed the US destroyer Cole in October 2000 off the port of Aden, killing 17 American sailors.

IslamOnline

Muslims must not pay price for Europe’s identity crisis

It seems that the targeting of Muslims and Islam has become a kind of national theatre in France. Unlike theatre, however, the disturbing trend can, and will turn ugly – in fact to a degree it already has – if the French government doesn’t get a grip on reality. The world, including France, is a complex, multifaceted and fascinatingly diverse place; it cannot be co-opted to fit national specificities determined by a group of irritable far right racists with a distorted interpretation of themselves and others.

Unfortunately, France is not alone; it merely highlights the most obvious manifestation of growing anti-Muslim sentiments throughout Europe. Unearthing the reasons behind the disturbing phenomena is hardly an easy task, for it arguably requires a greater examination of the political, economic and social woes of European states than it does of the ‘shortcomings’ of Islam.

Islam is a great religion in many respects; it has endured for over 1400 years. Its membership is never confined by skin colour, culture, political ideology or geographic boundaries. Its views of antiquity, on equality, women rights and peace are considered progressive even by today’s standards.

The detractors of Islam fail to see all this. If Islam is dissected politically or ‘academically’, the investigation is done for the sake of destroying its repute, and discrediting or humiliating its followers.

The Swiss People’s Party (SVP) may claim that their commitment is to keep Switzerland secular, devoid of symbols of oppression (as in a mosque’s minaret), but this only sounds like incoherent blabber and reflects nothing but a growing tendency towards racism, intolerance and ethnocentrism. These trends are glaring violations of the liberal philosophies associated with European countries, which guarantee individual and collective rights, including those of self-expression and freedom of speech.

In France, the phenomenon is protracted and more dangerous. Considering that France is the home of five million French Muslims, rightwing tendencies threaten future discord in the country.

The Washington Post reported on December 19 that Bilal Mosque, in the tranquil French town of Castres was desecrated by unknown assailants. “Two pig's ears and a poster of the French flag stapled to the door; a pig's snout dangled from the doorknob. ‘White power’ and ‘Sieg heil’ were spray-painted on one side…and ‘France for the French’ on the other.”

Here, one must recall the alarming words of Britain’s first Muslim minister, Shahid Malik. Himself a victim of hate crimes, Malik lamented a year and a half ago that many Muslims feel targeted like the “Jews of Europe”, and that many British Muslims feel like “aliens in their own country”.

While Many Muslims share the same feeling of nationalism and patriotism in their homelands in Europe, rightwing racists - who are unfortunately becoming a dominant force in shaping public views in various European states – insist on a very narrow definition of what makes a French, a British, a German or a Swiss.

There is indeed an identity crisis that is real and frightening. And it’s one that is not engulfing Europe alone, but also affects and in some instances has devastated many cultures all over the world. While it is a byproduct of misguided and unchecked globalization, in the case of Europe itself the issue is very national and very personal. The European Union, which started as a purely economic body has morphed into a political and pan-nationalist organization that is attempting, by accident or design, to define a united Europe and a prototypical European. This has raised fears of the loss of national identities or whatever remains of it. Expectedly, it is the politically underrepresented, socially marginalized and economically disadvantaged groups that often pay the price of this sort of national resurgence.

Targeting Muslims is a common denominator that now unifies a great proportion of European political elites and media. The reasons are numerous and obvious. Some European countries are at war (which they have chosen) in various Muslim countries; desperate and failed politicians are in need for constant distractions from their own failures and mishaps; associating Islam with terrorism is more than an acceptable intellectual diatribe, a topic of discussion that has occupied more radio and television airtime than any other; also, pushing Muslims around seems to have few political repercussions – unlike the subjugation of targeting of other groups with political or economic clout.

But is their more to this? A 2007-08 Gallup poll asked the following question: does religion occupy an important place in your life? The vast majority in Western European countries answered with a resounding “no”. Only 9 percent of Turkish citizens – a country with a Muslim majority – shared the popular view. Most European Muslims strongly identify with their religion, which has preserved their sense of community, and helped maintain a degree of cultural cohesion and a semblance of collective identity at a time when many in Europe are losing theirs. Muslims must not be blamed for this loss, and nor should they be punished, derided or targeted for daring to hold onto their beliefs.

Returning again to France, what is most alarming about the anti-Muslim measures is that they are largely led by the government itself, rather than a fanatical group of disenchanted ideologues. Eric Besson, the country’s Immigration Minister, stated on December 16 that Muslim veils will be grounds of denying citizenships and long-term residence. Besson was only echoing the disquieting policies of conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy who has started a ‘national identity campaign’ for ensuring an exclusive identity of France - one that is occupied with the targeting of immigrants, particularly Muslims.

Sarkozy, Besson, and Europe’s rightwing and far right politicians must understand the possible ramifications if they continue to press with their reckless and alienating policies.

Radicalization is an unavoidable offshoot of group alienation, which is sadly being used to further fuel the anti-immigrant fervour throughout the continent. It is a vicious cycle, the blame for which lies squarely with the savvy politicians and their obvious agendas. As for those who insist on blaming Islam for Europe’s woes, they should really find another pastime; the self-indulgent game is too hazardous and must stop.

-- Ramzy Baroud (Ramzy Baroud) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com.

Iran Cracks Down On Opposition, West Critical

TEHRAN – A day after deadly anti-government protests, Iranian security forces arrested scores of opposition figures, Monday, December 28, sparking international outcry.

“(Ebrahim Yazdi) was arrested at home and taken to an unknown place early Monday morning by security agents," opposition Rahesabz website said, referring to an opposition politician.

Several aides to former president Mohamed Khatami and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi were also reportedly arrested.

"Mousavi advisors Alireza Beheshti, (Ghorban) Behzadian-Nejad and (Mohammad) Bagherian were also arrested in the morning," Parlemannews website said.

Security agents also raided the office of a women's magazine, Irandokht, run by opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi's wife, and confiscated computers, according to Advarnews website.

Award-winning rights campaigner and journalist Emadeddin Baghi was also arrested.

"Security agents treated Baghi's family and daughters very offensively as they arrested him."

The crackdown came a day after deadly clashes between opposition supporters and security forces left eight people dead.

More than 60 people had also been injured in Tehran.

The deadly clashes erupted when police tried to disperse tens of thousands of opposition supporters trying to make use of the Shiite `Ashura ritual to stage anti-government rallies.

The Revolutionary Guards and the Islamic Basij militia also issued a stern warning to the opposition on Monday.

"The Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij are fully prepared, if necessary, to eradicate the plot and urge the judiciary to react firmly, without any restriction against the plotters," they said, referring to the opposition.

The response to the opposition was "a national duty," they said in a statement posted on the website of state television.

Iran sank into political turmoil since the disputed June presidential elections, which the opposition says were massively rigged in incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s favour.

West Condemns

The security crackdown on the Iranian opposition have stirred outcry at home and abroad.

"What has happened to this religious system that it orders the killing of innocent people during the holy day of Ashura?" asked opposition leader Karoubi.

"Defiance and disrespecting the law and people's rights have inflicted irreversible costs for seven months on the country and people."

Western countries also denounced the deadly Iranian crackdown.

"Freedom of expression and right to peaceful assembly are universal human rights that must be respected," the European Union said in a statement.

"Brutal force against, and the arbitrary detentions of, demonstrators constitute gross violations of these basic human rights."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the death of opposition supporters were "yet another reminder of how the Iranian regime deals with protest”.

"It is therefore particularly disturbing to hear accounts of the lack of restraint by the security forces."

Washington also joined the chorus of international criticism of the Iranian crackdown.

"Hope and history are on the side of those who peacefully seek their universal rights, and so is the United States," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel added her criticism, saying the right to free expression "must not be restricted or suppressed by violence”.

"I condemn the recent violent clashes in Iran in which people died due to the unacceptable actions of the security forces."

France warned Tehran its actions would "lead nowhere" and urged a negotiated political settlement.

"At a time when the death toll is rising, France again expresses its deep concern and condemns the arbitrary arrests and violence carried out against ordinary protesters," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

French relations with Iran have been hit by the trial of 24-year-old teacher Clotilde Reiss, who is accused of having supported the June opposition protests.

Italy appealed to the Iranian authorities to end "the spiral of violence" and seek a political solution though democratic dialogue.

Russia, which has the strongest ties with Iran of any major power, raised its concerns in a more mildly worded statement, calling for restraint.

"We are worried about the events that have taken place in Iran in recent days," the foreign ministry said.

"In our opinion, the main thing in this situation is to show restraint, look for and find compromises on the basis of law, undertake political efforts to prevent further escalation of the internal confrontation."

IslamOnline