Islamic World

Cairo, May 30: Nearly one third of Muslims living in the European Union have been discriminated against last year, with ethnic background, not religion, is the main cause of discrimination, a EU report has found.
“On average 1 in 3 Muslim respondents were discriminated against in the past 12 months, and 11% experienced a racist crime,” the EU Fundamental Rights Agency said in a new report.

The report, which surveyed 23,500 members of ethnic minorities and migrant communities, said Muslims were largely discriminated against in the labor field.

Riyadh, May 27: A gunman in a speeding car opened fire on a bus carrying five foreigners in eastern Saudi Arabia, but no one was injured in the incident, the interior ministry said.

The bus was traveling in the Gulf coast petrochemical hub of Jubail when it was fired on from an overtaking car, said ministry spokesman General Mansur Al Turki.

The shots shattered the rear window in the bus but neither the Pakistani driver nor the passengers – three Britons, one Saudi, and one Syrian were injured, he said. The five men all work for the same company, which was not identified.

Tehran, May 26: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposed on Monday a face-to-face debate with President Barack Obama at the United Nations if he is re-elected next month as Iran’s president.

But he balanced the offer with a sharp rebuke to Washington and its allies over Iran’s nuclear program. He reiterated that Iran would never abandon its advances in uranium enrichment in exchange for offers of easing sanctions or other economic incentives.

The nuclear issue “is closed,” he told a news conference.

Damascus, May 26: Amid reports of an American plan offering Israel ties with Arab and Muslim countries in exchange for talks on all peace tracks, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) stressed, that relations with Israel would come after solving the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“(Any normalization) will come after the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict,” OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told a press conference following a three-day meeting of the OIC foreign ministers.

Cairo, May 25: Flames burst from the stage for a grand entrance, and fake fog swirls around a young man in a white robe.

He clutches the microphone, gazes seriously into the camera and then, accompanied only by drums, he sings.

“I accept Allah as my God, His religion as my religion, and His Messenger as my Messenger,” he intones, as the audience, divided into men’s and women’s sections, claps along with the rhythm.

Tehran, May 24: Iran’s former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezai warned on Sunday he could stop Israel with “one strike” and said it would not dare to threaten the Islamic republic if he is elected President.

“My government understands missiles and tanks as well as foreign policy and knows exactly where Israel’s sensitive spots are. It could stop them forever with one strike,” Rezai told a news conference.

New Delhi,May 19: The cost of performing Haj has gone up by a considerable margin this year.

The lowest financial category allowed for Haj is of Rs 1 lakh this year. Last year, the budget of the same category was Rs 72,000. Facilities for the general class come in the price range of Rs 1.20 lakh and in the deluxe category at the cost of Rs 1.50 lakh.

This huge rise in cost has put lot of hopefuls for the Haj in a spot.

Kabul, May 03: Four civilians, including two children, were killed in a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan, while four Afghan army soldiers and 31 Taliban militants were killed elsewhere in the country, officials said Sunday.
In the latest incident, an eight-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy and two adult civilians were killed in Gerishk district of southern Helmand province Sunday morning. The bomb that killed them was placed on a motorbike in the main market of the district, Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor said.

Tehran, April 22: Convicted by Iran of spying for the US and given an eight-year jail sentence, Roxana Saberi is at the centre of a tense new stand-off between Tehran and the West.
Barack Obama has demanded the release of the 31-year-old journalist, who has dual Iranian and American nationality. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has intervened in the case. And yesterday, an acclaimed Iranian film director stepped forward to proclaim her innocence, denounce her imprisonment as an act which has brought shame on all Iranians and publicly to declare his love for Ms Saberi.

Tehran, March 01: Iran’s supreme leader Saturday warned Iraq over the prolonged presence of US forces in that country, the Iranian media reported.

‘The occupiers are preparing grounds for a long and enduring presence in Iraq and this is a big danger of which the Iraqi officials should be aware,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.