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On November 17, 2008, when Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker signed an agreement for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, citizens from both countries applauded. While many were disappointed about the lengthy timeline for the withdrawal of the troops, it appeared that a roadmap was set to end the war and occupation. However, the first step — withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009 — is full of loopholes, and tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers will remain in the cities after the “deadline” passes.

Pilgrims, both Hindu and Muslim, are thronging the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer for his 797th annual Urs or death anniversary, which is not treated as a sad occasion but a celebration of the soul’s union with god.

About 250,000 to 300,000 pilgrims visit Ajmer during the Urs, which this year begins Thursday and will go on till June 30. The dargah (shrine) of the saint, who was popularly known as Khwaja Gharib Nawaz by his devotees from both communities, symbolises a touching synthesis of the hopes and prayers of various faiths and communities.

Islam has influenced and enriched modern-day international refugee laws more than any other source, a United Nations study said, lamenting that Muslims make up a large bulk of the world refugees. “The international community should value this 14-century-old tradition of generosity and hospitality and recognize its contributions to modern law,” UN High Commission for Refugees Chief Ant?nio Guterres wrote at the forward of the study.

Airline cancels specially planned, low-cost flight for pilgrims at the last moment; travellers who had arranged for accommodation left in the lurch

Thousands of pilgrims were left in the lurch when a leading airline cancelled their flight at the last moment.

Jet Airways, which was supposed to start a low fare, special flight between Mumbai and Jeddah on June 14 for people travelling to Umrah (see box) had to cancel the flight after they failed to get clearance from the Saudi government.

The abrupt cancellation meant that Muslims on their pilgrimage were caught in no man’s land.

Paris, June 22: The Islamic burka is “not welcome” in France because it is not a symbol of religion but a sign of subservience for women, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday.

“The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience,” he told lawmakers. “It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic.”

A group of French lawmakers has been calling for a special inquiry into whether Muslim women who cover themselves fully in public undermine French secularism and women’s rights.

–PTI

The Islamic state of Iran has been on the boil ever since the disputed results of the country’s Presidential Elections were declared. The Iranian version of democracy came under the scanner after the authorities declared the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a ‘clear’ winner paving way for his return to power for a second consecutive term.

Ahmadinejad’s victory over his nearest rival and the reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was not well received by the Iranians as allegations of poll fraud and rigging were slapped on the incumbent government.

Barack Obama’s June 4 speech in Cairo addressed a global population of 1.3 billion Muslims long outraged at the abuse that Israel has inflicted on its neighbors-with US support. The potential positive impact of that speech was offset when he appeared the next day in Germany at the Buchenwald death camp. The timing of that Holocaust photo-op resolved all doubts about who stage-manages his presidency.

Nearly twice as many US army soldiers today are either alcoholic or engage in damaging behavior such as binge drinking than six years ago, and experts blame the rise on repeated tours in war zones.

A report in the USA Today daily on Friday said US army statistics showed more than 11 soldiers per 1,000 were diagnosed in the first six months of this year as suffering from alcoholism or alcohol abuse problems such as binge drinking — a jump from 6.1 per 1,000 in 2003.

Washington, June 18: Across the United States Muslim charities are being shut down, raided or questioned under terrorism finance laws that give the government unchecked power and creates a climate of fear that is stopping American Muslims from carrying out one of their fundamental religious duties, an advocacy group said Wednesday.

A group of French lawmakers launched, a fierce campaign against the burka, a loose outfit covering the whole body from head to toe and wore by some Muslim women, demanding a national panel to curb it in public.

“Today, in many city neighborhoods, we see several Muslim women wearing the burka, which covers and fully envelops the body and the head, like a moving prison,” MP Andre Gerin said at a parliament session. Gerin is spearheading the drive for a parliamentary commission to be set up to look into what he described as a growing number of women donning the burka in France.

Detective agencies say national parties hired their services as recently as the LS polls.

Things just got murkier in the already murky world of politics. National parties have been hiring detective agencies to snoop on their rivals, and sometimes even on notorious members of their own party.

Dick Cheney’s attitude towards the Obama administration’s national security policies suggests the former vice president secretly wishes the US was attacked, says Leon Panetta, the U.S. director of central intelligence.

In an interview published in the latest issue of the New Yorker, the head of the CIA expresses frustration at Cheney’s speech last month, on the same day that President Obama outlined his national security strategy in a separate speech.

“Dangerous politics”

High food prices have pushed another 105 million people into hunger in the first half of 2009, the head of the U.N. World Food Programme said on Friday, raising the total number of hungry people to over 1 billion.

Urging rich nations at a meeting of G8 development ministers not to cut back on aid, Josette Sheeran said the world faced a human catastrophe as more people struggle to eat a decent meal.

“This year we are clocking in on average four million new hungry people a week, urgently hungry,” Sheeran told.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) not only totally ignored the subject of decoration and ornamentation while he was building and while he was overseeing others who were building during his lifetime, but he also, at a first glance, denounced the matter in several of his hadiths (traditions). In one of them, he is reported to have said that whenever a people’s performance (‘amal) weakens, they then start decorating their mosques.

New Delhi, June 13: Flavia Agnes is a leading feminist scholar, women’s rights lawyer and social activist based in Mumbai. She has written and worked extensively on Muslim women’s issues, communalism and religion-based personal laws in India. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand, she talks about her work.

Q: Could you tell us something about your own background?

Cairo, June 12: Though Muslims enjoy a unique atmosphere of tolerance in Brazil, many of their mosques are closed because of the rarity of imams, something that threatens the Islamic identity of many Muslims, particularly the younger generations.
“One third of the mosques are closed due to the absence of imams,” Al-Sadiq Al-Othmani, head of the Islamic Affairs Department at the Sao Paulo-based Center of Islamic Da`wah in Latin America, told IslamOnline.net over the phone.

There are mosques in all the major capitals of the Brazilian states and some cities in the interior.

Most Western analysts of political Islam make the same mistake. They instinctively assume that conflict with the West has mainly to do with specific foreign policies, particularly of the US with respect to Israel, the Arab world and Iran, and, if those changed, all would be well.

In fact, my intensive contact over the years with Iranian clerics, Hezbollah and Hamas suggest that the conflict with the West is much deeper. It is rooted in radically different world views about human nature and the good society.

Hyderabad, June 10: It was revenge and not ransom for which the 12-year-old boy from the Old City, Syed Mohd Usman Quadri, was killed. The kidnappers wanted revenge against Usman’s father, a realtor and demanding ransom was just a ploy to deceive the investigators, police said.

Police solved the mystery behind Usman’s killing and nabbed three brothers who plotted the kidnap and killing. Usman’s father, Syed Abdul Khader Quadri, is a realtor and the main accused, Khaja Aneesuddin alias Anees alias Hashmi, used to get him prospective customers.

Jerusalem, June 10: Friedman, who today travels the country as a Chabad speaker, showed a less warm and cuddly side when he was asked how he thinks Jews should treat their Arab neighbors.

“The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle),” Friedman wrote in response to the question posed by Moment Magazine for its “Ask the Rabbis” feature.

Friedman argued that if Israel followed this wisdom, there would be “no civilian casualties, no children in the line of fire, no false sense of righteousness, in fact, no war.”

India on Monday reported one more swine flu case in Hyderabad, taking to 7 the number of those affected by influenza A (H1N1) and 11 in India. Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said there was no need to panic as all precautions had been taken against the spread of the virus.

A health official said one more swine flu case had been reported in Delhi on Monday.

A 35-year-old man, who tested positive for influenza A (H1N1) and is being treated, transmitted the virus to his mother – making it the first human-to-human transmission case in the national capital, the official said.

India on Monday reported one more swine flu case in Hyderabad, taking to 7 the number of those affected by influenza A (H1N1) and 11 in India. Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said there was no need to panic as all precautions had been taken against the spread of the virus.

A health official said one more swine flu case had been reported in Delhi on Monday.

A 35-year-old man, who tested positive for influenza A (H1N1) and is being treated, transmitted the virus to his mother – making it the first human-to-human transmission case in the national capital, the official said.

The senator who once famously declared that global warming was the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” has now moved on to President Barack Obama.

In comments made to an Oklahoma news outlet, Sen. James Inhofe (R-KN) declared Obama’s speech in Cairo attempting to ameliorate tension between the United States and the Muslim world “un-American,” because he referred to the war in Iraq as a “war of choice,” “and didn’t criticize Iran for developing a nuclear program.”

In seminars abroad, especially in US and Europe when I say in India secularism is equal respect for all religions and harmonious co-existence of all religions, many express pleasant surprise. For them secularism has always meant being either a-religious or anti-religious. Secularism in Indian and western contexts has very different connotations. And there are historical reasons for this.

From shopkeepers and students to groups such as Hamas, many Muslims praised President Barack Obama’s address Thursday as a positive shift in U.S. attitude and tone. But hard-liners criticized it as style over substance and said it lacked concrete proposals to turn the words into action.