Barack Obama apology to Afghanistan over Koran burning

Afghan police and plain-clothed security officials fire shots into a crowd of about 500 protesters in Kabul

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President Barack Obama has apologised to the Afghan people for the burning of Korans by American troops at a US base.

In a letter to President Hamid Karzai, Mr Obama expressed his "deep regret" and said the incident earlier this week was a genuine mistake.

Demonstrations against the desecration have continued for a third day across northern and eastern Afghanistan.

Two foreign soldiers, believed to be Americans, have been killed, along with at least six Afghan people.

On Wednesday, another seven people were killed and dozens injured in protests.

Mr Obama's letter, delivered by the US ambassador to Afghanistan, assured the Afghan president that US authorities would question all those responsible.

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At the scene

Ahmed Elham BBC Afghan, Baghlan

It started at about 09:00 when people from different villages around Baghlan converged on the town centre. About 1,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the police station and there was a lot of anger and violence. Then suddenly we heard an outbreak of machine-gun fire.

We went to the hospital where the injured were taken and a wounded policeman there told us that demonstrators shot at police. Officials say they are conducting an investigation to find out who opened fire.

After the violence, people escaped from the area, shops were closed and eventually demonstrators left. But it was an intense episode. People were shouting anti-American slogans expressing their outrage at the burning of the Koran. They also accused the Americans of being opposed to their religion.

"I convey my deep sympathies and ask you and the people to accept my deep apologies," the letter said.

President Karzai told members of the Afghan parliament that a US officer was responsible for the burning.

But he said it was done out of "ignorance".

In addition to those killed, many people have been injured in the protests, some of them critically, while armed men on Thursday also attacked at least two military installations.

Crowds shouting "death to Obama" have been throwing stones and setting fire to the US flag.

Meanwhile the Taliban has called on Afghans to kill and beat all invading forces in revenge for "insulting" the Koran.

In a statement a Taliban spokesman said Afghans should "not stop at protesting" but instead target military bases and personnel to "teach them a lesson that they will never again dare to insult the Holy Koran".

'Death to America'

The BBC's Andrew North, in the Afghan capital, says many officials sympathise with the outrage the US has provoked across the country.

He says Friday prayers may spark more tensions, depending on the tone set by religious leaders.

The protests have become more widespread

Police, local officials and tribal elders have told the BBC there have been major protests in at least nine areas across the country, each involving many hundreds of people.

The worst incident was in Khogyani in Nangarhar province, where a man wearing an Afghan army uniform killed two Nato soldiers who are believed to be from the US.

Two protesters were also killed and seven injured as Nato forces opened fire when armed men attacked the US/Afghan base.

Further south, in Uruzgan province, two people were killed and at least eight others wounded, three of them police, in clashes between protesters and Afghan security forces, local officials told the BBC's Bilal Sarwary.

They said demonstrators were carrying guns, metal bars and sticks.

There have now been three days of protests over the burning of the Koran at a US military base

In northern Baghlan province, one civilian was killed and two others injured, while two police were also hurt.

Another person was killed in Laghman province east of Kabul, where local police said several hundred people were chanting "Death to America".

More than 3,000 people gathered in Mehtar Lam, the capital of Laghman province, with some burning an effigy of President Obama.

Police say fights broke out as they stopped hundreds of protesters entering the centre of Kabul.

And in Asadabad, some 1,500 demonstrators were said to be burning US flags and tyres and shouting anti-American slogans.

A French military base to the east of Kabul was attacked.

Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.

Last year, at least 24 people died in protests across Afghanistan after a hardline US pastor burned a Koran in Florida.

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Xenophobia and the Maintanence of Muslim Hate

Yet ANOTHER Right Wing Terror Incident...Ricin Attacks Planned

~~~~~~~~~

Halal and Kosher hit by Dutch ban

6 November 2011 Last updated at 00:05 ET Help

Next month the Dutch parliament is expected to approve a ban on halal and kosher methods of slaughtering animals for food.

Those who proposed the ban say it is simply an issue of animal welfare, but it received strong support from the right-wing Freedom Party.

Many see it as a violation of their religious freedom, and among the Jewish community it is a worrying echo of a similar ban brought in by Hitler.

Anna Holligan reports from The Hague.

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Hertz Fires 26 Muslims For Refusing to Clock out During Prayer Breaks

By: Nick Carbone

A traveler boards a Hertz shuttle bus in Chicago

Tim Boyle / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Prayer breaks were breaking protocol at one Hertz location, leading the company to slam the brakes on the employees.

The Hertz branch at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has fired 26 Somali Muslims who refused to clock out during prayers. They are among 34 employees suspended in September for failing to punch out during prayers. Eight were reinstated after signing an agreement to clock out by the Thursday deadline. The holdouts were sent termination letters.

(PHOTOS: Looking Beyond Muslim Stereotypes)

Hertz spokesman Richard Broome says he's “disappointed” that an agreement couldn't be reached between the company and the 26 now ex-employees. He says that many of the workers failed to return promptly after prayers, leading to the harsh punishment. "It's not about prayer, it's not about religion; it's about reasonable requirements," Broome told the Associated Press earlier this month. Broome said the frequent unannounced prayer created an “unmanageable, unfair work environment” at the location.

But being forced to clock out is a new policy for Hertz, according to the Teamsters Local 117 union who fought on behalf of the Muslim workers. According to the union, a collective bargaining agreement last year stated they wouldn't have to punch out for prayer. But a new policy implemented Sept. 30 noted all breaks would have to be clocked out, a note that specifically referenced prayer breaks.

"We feel like we're being punished for what we believe in," said former Hertz employee Ileys Omar, who prays five times a day. "It's five minutes. It's not as big deal as the company's making it," Omar told KOMO News. After all, the union notes that the punch-out policy doesn't apply to smoke breaks.

Five minutes for spiritual enlightenment sounds a bit healthier than puffing away on a cigarette.

Nick Carbone is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @nickcarbone. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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Karl Rove: It’s ‘Offensive’ To Say We Are A Christian Nation

Karl Rove: It’s ‘Offensive’ To Say We Are A Christian Nation


“We are based on the Judeo-Christian ethic, we derive a lot from it, but if you say we’re a Christian nation, what about the Jews, what about the Muslims, what about the non-believers?”

Islamic Extremist is to Islam as KKK is to Christian Extremism

West Wing - Issac and Ishmael

This video would be helpful if the word Wahhabi was mentioned.

Wahhabism is the KKK for Muslims.

Jewish Americans Overwhelmingly Cold Toward Tea Party

Jewish Americans Overwhelmingly Cold Toward Tea Party

June 16, 2011 at 2:17 pm

In response to reports of a new non-scientific sampling of Jewish American attitudes toward the Tea Party, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami issued the following statement, drawing on the findings of J Street’s Election Night 2010 poll of 1,000 randomly-selected Jewish Americans:

“Contrary to claims that Jews are ‘warming’ to the Tea Party, actual scientific opinion research has shown that Jews hold deeply negative views of the Tea Party Movement and there is no evidence of any shift in the basic ideological positions or attitudes in the community as a whole,” Ben-Ami said.

“Despite the wishful thinking of Republican political operatives and hard-line conservatives in the Jewish community, American Jews remain a fundamentally liberal constituency, voting in 2010 as they have for decades by roughly 2-1 for the Democratic Party,” he said. “They continue to identify overwhelmingly as liberal or progressive and to hold favorable views of Barack Obama.”

In J Street’s own poll last November, the Tea Party was viewed favorably by 19 percent of American Jews and unfavorably by 71 percent.

In addition, a survey by the Pew Research Center in September 2010 confirmed that only 15 percent of Jews agree with the Tea Party.

“Wouldn’t a more appropriate headline for the real research be ‘American Jews overwhelmingly cold toward Tea Party?’” said Ben-Ami.

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Dubai Burj Khalifa: Ramadan fast 'lasts longer high up'

A drawback of the high-life?

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Muslims living in the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, should fast longer during the Ramadan holy month, Dubai's leading clerics have said.

During Ramadan, Muslims are supposed to not eat or drink between dawn and dusk.

"Burj Khalifa is almost one km (0.6 miles) high, which means people in higher floors can still see the sun after it has set on the ground," Ahmed Abdul Aziz al-Haddad told Reuters.

He said they should break their fast two minutes after those on the ground.

Another Dubai cleric, Mohammed al-Qubaisi, has been quoted as saying that people living above the 80th floor should fast for an extra two minutes, while those on the 150th floor and higher should wait for three more minutes before eating or drinking.

The 828m- (2,716ft-) high Burj Khalifa has 160 floors and was opened in 2010.

The clerics say there are ancient precedents in Islamic law.

Mr Qubaisi said that under such rulings, people living on mountains should also break their fast after those at ground level.

Ramadan began last week.

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Anders Behring Breivik Norway Extremist Christian and Far Right Fanatic

British Museum to stage Hajj exhibition

A 16th Century Ivory sundial and Qibla pointer is among articles to be displayed

The world's largest exhibition on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, is to be staged at the British Museum early in 2012, it has announced.

Manuscripts, diaries, historic photographs and contemporary art will be displayed to mark the annual ritual, undertaken by Muslims across the world.

The museum's director, Neil MacGregor, said the Hajj was a cultural phenomenon "that needs to be better understood".

Hajj: Journey To The Heart Of Islam will run from 26 January to 15 April.

Pilgrim's journey

Every adult Muslim is meant to undertake the Hajj at least once in their life if they can afford the journey to Saudi Arabia and are physically able.

Many Muslims save for years in order to perform the pilgrimage.

Circling the Kaaba in the Great Mosque in Mecca is part of the ritual

Once they arrive, they must brave vast crowds and the fierce heat of the desert as they perform the Hajj rituals.

The exhibition will examine the pilgrim's journey, the rituals and the destination of Mecca.

It will also feature the work of contemporary Saudi artists such as Ahmed Mater and Shadia Alem.

Mr MacGregor described the Hajj as a "supreme spiritual moment for Muslims" which "shapes the notion of the Islamic community worldwide".

He added: "Very beautiful things, supreme works of art, have been made to be sent to Mecca to accompany people.

"We'll be looking at some of those objects and they are supreme."

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Should men in uniform be forced to shave?

By Rajini Vaidyanathan BBC News, Washington

Several US organisations ban beards, including the military and police forces

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A Jewish rabbi is suing the US Army for refusing to let him serve unless he removes his beard. The US military, as well as many police forces across America, require recruits to be clean shaven. But what is wrong with sporting a beard in the line of duty?

Chin straps, goatees, stubble, soul patches, mutton chops or just the old-fashioned full version.

There are many ways to grow a beard, but if you're serving in the US military, getting creative with your chin furniture is not an option.

The different branches of the US insist that recruits are clean shaven. Those later in their career are permitted to go as far as growing a moustache. But even that facial freedom comes with caveats.

"Moustaches are allowed, but hair may not extend beyond the edges of the lips, nor may it extend below the top of the upper lip," says a US Army spokesman.

Rabbi Stern believes he should be allowed to serve with his beard

"Sideburns may not grow below a level even with the bottom of the ear canal."

As for beards, well, they're banned.

Serving members of the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps may qualify for a "shaving waiver" if they suffer from medical conditions that make shaving difficult or painful, but still have to keep any facial hair short.

The beard ban has meant some Muslims, Sikhs and Hasidic Jews have been unable to sign up for duty.

"I was told my application to join the army would only be accepted if I shaved off my beard," says Menachem Stern, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, from the Chabad Lubavitch Community, who applied to join the army as a chaplain in 2008.

The 29-year-old is suing the US Army for refusing him the right to keep his beard, on the grounds of his religious beliefs.

"This is a tenet of our faith - it's not optional not to have one in our community.

"Could you imagine any of the great sages - whether Abraham, Isaac or Jacob - clean shaven?" he says.

Rabbi Stern's case has been taken up by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who has written to the army secretary asking for the beard policy to be modified for chaplains.

In recent years, shaving waivers have been issued for some applicants, and not for others. According to Mr Stern's lawyer, Nathan Lewin, three Sikhs have been given permission to keep their beards since 2009.

Continue reading the main story

LAPD Facial hair regulations

• Employees shall be clean shaven when reporting for duty. Beards shall be permitted only when required by the nature of the assignment or for a bona fide medical condition
• The employee's beard shall be neatly trimmed and not longer than one-quarter inch in length
• Male employees may wear a short and neatly trimmed moustache of natural colour
• Moustaches shall not extend below the vermillion of the upper lip or below the corners of the mouth and may not extend to the side more than one‑half inch beyond the corners of the mouth

Back in 1976 Mr Lewin fought a case on behalf of a bearded rabbi who wanted to serve in the US Air Force, and won. He's disappointed to be having the same battle all over again.

"I would like to be able to say that government agencies are becoming more accepting of various aspects of appearance but frankly Rabbi Stern's experience with the US Army leads me to conclude that there are still very strong restrictions that the people who have control over these institutions are imposing."

'Group identity'

But why is there a ban in the first place?

A US Army spokesman said it was to do with "long-standing traditions of uniformity, hygiene, and good order and discipline", adding that it was in keeping with strict dress codes which required a sense of professionalism and group identity.

Beards are also banned in the US military for practical reasons, explains Penny Jolly, a professor of art and art history, who has studied social trends in appearance.

"They were eliminated in the US military in WWI due to the need to wear gas masks. Razors were issued in GI kits, so men could shave themselves on the battlefield," she says.

The gas mask argument is also often made by police forces - though across the US a patchwork of different rules and regulations exists.

'Excessively bushy'

At the end of last year, Durango County police force in Colorado relaxed its rule to allow officers to sport goatee beards (which apparently do not affect the seal between the gas mask and the face).

In the opposite direction of growth, New York's police department tightened its follicular restrictions in 2008, banning goatees, chin straps and "designer beards".

Moustaches are generally permitted in the police, but subject to some strict rules.

The Chicago police department reportedly outlaws moustaches that are "excessively bushy, rolled or curled".

Los Angeles Police Department, one of the largest police forces in the country, says they must be neat and tidy and of a natural colour.

"Moustaches shall not extend below the vermillion of the upper lip or below the corners of the mouth and may not extend to the side more than one half inch beyond the corners of the mouth," reads the LAPD moustache manifesto.

Handlebar moustaches

The British armed forces also have a troubled relationship with facial hair.

Some operatives in Afghanistan sport beards to help them win the trust of the local population

In the Army and RAF, beards are generally allowed only on medical or religious grounds, though some infantry regiments have a rank of "pioneer sergeant" - responsible for carpentry and joinery - which comes with the right to grow a beard.

The British Navy also has its own beard tradition - allowing a "full set" (beard plus moustache) on the permission of the commanding officer. The Navy does not accept the argument that a beard prevents a gas mask working effectively.

The RAF, for its part, has a fondness for handlebar moustaches - far bushier than anything allowed in the US forces. One British airman with floral facial hair got into hot water when temporarily attached to the USAF.

But while joining the army can sometimes be difficult for Muslims, Sikhs and Jews who feel obliged by their faith to grow a full beard, in a country like Afghanistan, the boot is on the other foot. Here it's the US and British servicemen who have a challenge fitting in.

"Our men in the field are growing their beards because the Afghan soldiers think it is respectful," said a Ministry of Defence spokesman in 2006. "For men working very closely alongside the Afghans for long periods, wearing beards has proved to be an excellent way of helping to win trust and breed understanding."

US special operations units in Afghanistan have also long worn beards to gain the respect of tribal elders. Combined with Oakley wrap-around sunglasses, though, the look is sometimes more Hell's Angel than Helmand.

Source

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Commentary

This has nothing to do with the gas mask issue, something the Navy completely agrees on. They force all recruits to look similar because it's easier to boss around people when they're working as a unit "for the greater good".

Each individual is then marginalized and told to work as part of a network, making hard choices "for the greater good".

The problem with doing things, "for the greater good", is that there is no limit where it ends. Torture is o.k, "for the greater good", as is murder and crime in general.

No beard, no individualism, forcing them to work as a group, and "work for the greater good".

That's the Army's mission, from day 1 and it's what they teach you in Army 101.

The Myth of Homegrown Islamic Terrorism

By Romesh Ratnesar

There is a specter haunting the U.S. It is "one of the things that keeps me up at night," Attorney General Eric Holder said last month. North Carolina Representative Sue Myrick, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, has warned President Obama that "there is no doubt" the problem has become "a global threat." The incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Peter King, plans to convene hearings next month on the danger "that threatens the security of us all."

In the wake of the Tucson, Ariz., tragedy, you might think that such high-profile alarm would center on the shortcomings of America's mental-health system or the inadequacy of the country's gun laws. You would be mistaken. Instead, some members of the political class remain fixated on what they regard as a greater national emergency: the purported rise of "homegrown" Islamic terrorists. They point to a string of examples of jihadist activity by U.S. citizens of Muslim faith: the Somali-born Portland, Ore., man who tried to detonate a dud car bomb planted by the FBI at a December tree-lighting ceremony; last summer's failed Times Square bombing by a naturalized Pakistani; the 14 men charged last August with providing support to Islamist militants in Somalia. (See more about Portland's Christmas-tree-bombing plot.)

And then there's Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemen-based Internet imam late of Falls Church, Va., who intelligence officials say now acts as a regional commander for al-Qaeda, with the charge of recruiting impressionable American Muslims to take up arms against their country. In the eyes of some, al-Awlaki and his ilk represent the vanguard of an even more sinister trend: the growing "radicalization" of the estimated 5 million Muslims living in the U.S. "Radicalization is taking place inside America," Myrick wrote in her letter to Obama. "The strikingly accelerated rate of American Muslims arrested for involvement in terrorist activities since May 2009 makes this fact self-evident."

Actually, it doesn't. Though acts of violent extremism by U.S. Muslims appear to have grown, their potency has not. American Muslims remain more moderate, diverse and integrated than the Muslim populations in any other Western society. Despite the efforts of al-Qaeda propagandists like al-Awlaki, the evidence of even modest sympathy for the enemy existing inside the U.S. is minuscule. The paranoia about homegrown terrorism thus vastly overstates al-Qaeda's strength and reflects our leaders' inability to make honest assessments about the true threats to America's security.

Those who beat the drums about the homegrown terrorism threat often gloss over one salient fact: for all the publicity that surrounds cases of domestic jihad, not a single civilian has been killed by an Islamic terrorist on U.S. soil since Sept. 11. (The killing spree by Major Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 doesn't fit the standard definition of terrorism: his motives were not wholly ideological, nor did he deliberately target civilians.) That's due to a number of factors, including the military's assault on al-Qaeda's leadership, tougher homeland-security measures, smart policing and some degree of luck. But the fact that every homegrown terrorism plot has been foiled before it could be carried out also demonstrates the fecklessness of the terrorists themselves. In nearly every case — including that of Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomber, who came closest to succeeding — homegrown terrorists have been found to have acted almost entirely alone. There has been no vast conspiracy. Terrorist attacks may not require much money or ingenuity, but a lone wolf has little chance of pulling off the kind of mass-casualty strike that counterterrorism experts worry about most. (See more about the Broadway Bomber, Faisal Shahzad.)

Of course, violent individuals — from Hasan to Jared Loughner — are still capable of causing mayhem. But there's no evidence that large numbers of American Muslims are inclined to do so. Though alarmists point to the alienation of young Muslims in Western Europe as a sign of things to come for the U.S., the likelihood of that happening there is remote. A Gallup survey conducted in 2009 found that American Muslims report vastly higher rates of life satisfaction than do their counterparts in other Western countries — and higher rates than the populations in every Muslim-majority country except one, Saudi Arabia. In the past 10 years, fewer than 200 people in the U.S. have been indicted on suspicion of jihadist activities. A comprehensive report by the Rand Corporation last year concluded that just one out of every 30,000 American Muslims could be said to have joined jihad, "suggesting an American Muslim population that remains hostile to jihadist ideology and its exhortations to violence."

So why does the myth of homegrown terrorism persist? In part because, like every hardy political meme, it serves the interests of loudmouths on both ends of the ideological spectrum. To the right, the threat of homegrown terrorism helps to perpetuate the notion of a ceaseless, civilization-wide struggle against Islamic extremism. To the left, the prospect of American Muslims taking up jihad fits with the idea that the U.S.'s foreign policy is creating a new generation of terrorists. (See photos of a jihadist's journey.)

And yet al-Qaeda is weaker and less capable today than it was before Sept. 11; its appeal to mainstream Muslims around the world is shrinking, rather than increasing. The fact that Osama bin Laden wannabes like al-Awlaki have risen to such prominence is testament to the evisceration of al-Qaeda's leadership. The U.S. faces far bigger and immediate challenges to the welfare and security of its citizens, not least from the ease with which unstable individuals can legally obtain and use deadly firearms. Addressing that danger will do more to protect Americans than obsessing about the phantom threat of homegrown terrorism ever will.

Ratnesar, a TIME contributing editor-at-large, is a Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of Tear Down This Wall: A City, a President, and the Speech That Ended the Cold War. His column on global affairs appears every Monday on TIME.com.

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Vatican sets up watchdog to combat money laundering

The new rules bring the Vatican in line with international regulations

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The Vatican has set up a new financial authority to fight money laundering and make its financial operations more transparent.

The Pope has signed into law new rules to bring the Vatican's banking regulations in line with international efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The move comes ahead of an EU deadline.

It follows accusations the Vatican had been contravening international rules on money laundering.

In September, Rome prosecutors formally put the director of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and his deputy under criminal investigation after receiving a tip-off from the Bank of Italy about possible money laundering.

The Italian justice authorities seized 23m euros ($30m; £19m) which the Vatican had deposited at a branch of an Italian commercial bank near Saint Peter's Square, allegedly without properly identifying either the depositor or the recipient.

The Vatican said there had been a misunderstanding and there had been no wrongdoing by their bank or its employees.

Continue reading the main story

Vatican Bank

• Set up by Pope Pius XII in 1942
• Based in Vatican City, has no other branches, operates as offshore institution outside EU rules
• Headed by professional banker overseen by commission of cardinals
• No shareholders, no policy-making functions
• All profits set aside for charitable or religious works

On Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI signed the documents, saying the Vatican wanted to join other countries in cracking down on legal loopholes that have allowed criminals to exploit the financial sector.

The Vatican is acting ahead of a 31 December deadline to create a compliance authority to oversee all its financial operations, which is required by the EU and other international organisations.

The Vatican's centuries-old secrecy over the way it handles its money will no longer be an excuse to avoid its obligations under international and Italian criminal law to combat money-laundering operations by third parties, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

Exempt

The Vatican Bank - known officially as the Institute for Works of Religion - has hitherto exempted itself from international banking regulations on the grounds that it is not a real bank in the normal sense of the word, our correspondent says.

It handles accounts for the Pope, his cardinals and religious orders, and has only one branch inside the apostolic palace in Rome.

The new laws are due to come into effect by 1 April, after the new authority is set up and its members chosen, the Vatican said.

It will take some time, however, for the Vatican to be put on the so-called "white list" of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, our correspondent adds. The list identifies countries that have agreed to share tax information and crack down on tax havens.

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Bombay Stock Exchange launches Islamic index

Backers say that the index would "unlock the potential for Sharia investments in India".

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in the Indian city of Mumbai has launched a new index which consists of companies that meet the Islamic legal code.

The Tasis Shariah 50 was formed using guidelines from an Indian Shariah advisory board.

Studies have found that most Muslims in India are excluded from the country's formal financial sector.

That is because Islamic law does not allow investment in companies that sell goods like alcohol, tobacco or weapons.

Neither does it allow investment in companies that derive significant profit from interest.

The index is intended to be the basis for other Shariah-compliant financial products.

'Come and invest'

BSE Managing Director and Chief Executive Madhu Kannan said that the new index would attract Islamic and other "socially responsible" investors both in India and overseas.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

All Muslim countries of the Middle East and Pakistan put together do not have as many listed Sharia-compliant stocks as are available on the BSE”

End Quote Tasis Director of Research and Operations Shariq Nisar

"This index will create increased awareness of financial investments among the masses and help enhance financial inclusion," he said in a statement.

Companies included in the index have been screened by Tasis, which is based in Mumbai and whose board members include Islamic scholars and legal experts.

"Before anyone can attract investors, we need to put in place institutional infrastructure, and having an index to track Shariah-compliant stock is important," MH Khatkhatay, senior adviser to Tasis, told the Reuters news agency.

"If you have an ETF (exchange traded fund), for example, you need an index, or if overseas investors want to invest in Shariah index in India, this is an invitation for people to come and invest."

Tasis said the index would "unlock the potential for Sharia investments in India".

"The BSE has the largest number of listed Sharia-compliant stocks in the world," said Shariq Nisar, director of research and operations at Tasis.

"All Muslim countries of the Middle East and Pakistan put together do not have as many listed Sharia-complaint stocks as are available on the BSE."

Stocks will be reviewed every month to ensure they continue to meet the criteria - any which do not will be removed, officials say.

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Skywatchers set for lunar eclipse

The Moon could turn pink or blood red during the eclipse

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Skywatchers around the world are gearing up to observe a rare total lunar eclipse.

The best viewing conditions for the eclipse are from North and Central America, parts of northern Europe and East Asia.

Astronomers say the Moon could turn a pink or blood red hue during the eclipse, which begins early on Tuesday morning GMT.

It will be the first total lunar eclipse in three years.

The Moon is normally illuminated by the Sun. During a total lunar eclipse, the full Moon passes through the shadow created by the Earth blocking the Sun's light.

Some indirect sunlight will still manage to pierce through and give the Moon a ghostly colour.

The west coast of America will see the eclipse start on Monday night; observers in North and Central America will be able to view the whole event.

Total eclipse begins at 0741 GMT on Tuesday (0241 EST on Tuesday; 11:41 PST on Monday).

Western Europe will only see the start of the spectacle while western Asia will catch the tail end.

The totality phase - when the moon is entirely inside Earth's shadow - will last a little over an hour.

"It's perfectly placed so that all of North America can see it," said eclipse expert Fred Espenak of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Source

~~~~~~

Commentary

This coincides with the 14th-15th of Muharram for Muslims that are commemorating their sad occasion of Karbala.

Quite an eerie reminder of the sad tale, when the moon is colored blood red.

Girl, 15, arrested over 'Facebook Koran burning video'

Muslims revere the Koran as the word of God

A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of inciting religious hatred after allegedly burning an English language version of the Koran.

The 15-year-old, who lives in the West Midlands, allegedly posted the video, filmed two weeks ago on her school premises, on Facebook.

The video was reported to the school and subsequently removed, police said.

A 14-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of making threats. Both have been released on police bail.

It is thought the girl, who lives in the Sandwell Council area, was allegedly filmed setting the booklet alight while other pupils watched.

Two Facebook profiles have also been removed from the site, police added.

It is understood that the group who published that version of the Koran have since been to the school to talk to pupils.

'Sacred thing'

Catherine Heseltine, chief executive officer of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, said burning the Koran was one of the most offensive acts to Muslims that she could imagine.

She said: "The Koran is the most sacred thing to over a billion Muslims worldwide."

"You can see that in the way Muslims treat the Koran, washing before touching it and in many Muslim homes you will find it on the top shelf above all other books and we will never destroy the Koranic texts."

"We believe it is the word of God. God's guidance for us in this life," she added.

Bob Badham, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council cabinet member for education, said he had visited the school and believed the atmosphere was generally good among pupils.

He added that he did not believe there was a "deeper problem" in the area.

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Muslims and Islam Were Part of Twin Towers’ Life

Michael McElroy for The New York Times

Sinclair Hejazi Abdus-Salaam, now retired in Boca Raton, Fla., prayed at the trade center.

By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN

Published: September 10, 2010

Sometime in 1999, a construction electrician received a new work assignment from his union. The man, Sinclair Hejazi Abdus-Salaam, was told to report to 2 World Trade Center, the southern of the twin towers.

In the union locker room on the 51st floor, Mr. Abdus-Salaam went through a construction worker’s version of due diligence. In the case of an emergency in the building, he asked his foreman and crew, where was he supposed to reassemble? The answer was the corner of Broadway and Vesey.

Over the next few days, noticing some fellow Muslims on the job, Mr. Abdus-Salaam voiced an equally essential question: “So where do you pray at?” And so he learned about the Muslim prayer room on the 17th floor of the south tower.

He went there regularly in the months to come, first doing the ablution known as wudu in a washroom fitted for cleansing hands, face and feet, and then facing toward Mecca to intone the salat prayer.

On any given day, Mr. Abdus-Salaam’s companions in the prayer room might include financial analysts, carpenters, receptionists, secretaries and ironworkers. There were American natives, immigrants who had earned citizenship, visitors conducting international business — the whole Muslim spectrum of nationality and race.

Leaping down the stairs on Sept. 11, 2001, when he had been installing ceiling speakers for a reinsurance company on the 49th floor, Mr. Abdus-Salaam had a brief, panicked thought. He didn’t see any of the Muslims he recognized from the prayer room. Where were they? Had they managed to evacuate?

He staggered out to the gathering place at Broadway and Vesey. From that corner, he watched the south tower collapse, to be followed soon by the north one. Somewhere in the smoking, burning mountain of rubble lay whatever remained of the prayer room, and also of some of the Muslims who had used it.

Given the vitriolic opposition now to the proposal to build a Muslim community center two blocks from ground zero, one might say something else has been destroyed: the realization that Muslim people and the Muslim religion were part of the life of the World Trade Center.

Opponents of the Park51 project say the presence of a Muslim center dishonors the victims of the Islamic extremists who flew two jets into the towers. Yet not only were Muslims peacefully worshiping in the twin towers long before the attacks, but even after the 1993 bombing of one tower by a Muslim radical, Ramzi Yousef, their religious observance generated no opposition

“We weren’t aliens,” Mr. Abdus-Salaam, 60, said in a telephone interview from Florida, where he moved in retirement. “We had a foothold there. You’d walk into the elevator in the morning and say, ‘Salaam aleikum,’ to one construction worker and five more guys in suits would answer, ‘Aleikum salaam.’ ”

One of those men in suits could have been Zafar Sareshwala, a financial executive for the Parsoli Corporation, who went to the prayer room while on business trips from his London office. He was introduced to it, he recently recalled, by a Manhattan investment banker who happened to be Jewish.

“It was so freeing and so calm,” Mr. Sareshwala, 47, said in a phone conversation from Mumbai, where he is now based. “It had the feel of a real mosque. And the best part is that you are in the epicenter of capitalism — New York City, the World Trade Center — and you had this island of spiritualism. I don’t think you could have that combination anywhere in the world.”

How, when and by whom the prayer room was begun remains unclear. Interviews this week with historians and building executives of the trade center came up empty. Many of the Port Authority’s leasing records were destroyed in the towers’ collapse. The imams of several Manhattan mosques whose members sometimes went to the prayer room knew nothing of its origins.

Yet the room’s existence is etched in the memories of participants like Mr. Abdus-Salaam and Mr. Sareshwala. Prof. John L. Esposito of Georgetown University, an expert in Islamic studies, briefly mentions the prayer room in his recent book “The Future of Islam.”

Moreover, the prayer room was not the only example of Muslim religious practice in or near the trade center. About three dozen Muslim staff members of Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the north tower, used a stairwell between the 106th and 107th floors for their daily prayers.

Without enough time to walk to the closest mosque — Masjid Manhattan on Warren Street, about four blocks away — the waiters, chefs, banquet managers and others would lay a tablecloth atop the concrete landing in the stairwell and flatten cardboard boxes from food deliveries to serve as prayer mats.

During Ramadan, the Muslim employees brought their favorite foods from home, and at the end of the daylight fast shared their iftar meal in the restaurant’s employee cafeteria.

“Iftar was my best memory,” said Sekou Siby, 45, a chef originally from the Ivory Coast. “It was really special.”

Such memories have been overtaken, though, by others. Mr. Siby’s cousin and roommate, a chef named Abdoul-Karim Traoré, died at Windows on the World on Sept. 11, as did at least one other Muslim staff member, a banquet server named Shabir Ahmed from Bangladesh.

Fekkak Mamdouh, an immigrant from Morocco who was head waiter, attended a worship service just weeks after the attacks that honored the estimated 60 Muslims who died. Far from being viewed as objectionable, the service was conducted with formal support from city, state and federal authorities, who arranged for buses to transport imams and mourners to Warren Street.

There, within sight of the ruins, they chanted salat al-Ghaib, the funeral prayer when there is not an intact corpse.

“It is a shame, shame, shame,” Mr. Mamdouh, 49, said of the Park51 dispute. “Sometimes I wake up and think, this is not what I came to America for. I came here to build this country together. People are using this issue for their own agenda. It’s designed to keep the hate going.”

Source

Olbermann Blasts Media For Ground Zero Mosque Reporting - 2 Mosques inside WTC tower

Keith Olbermann named the entire media his "worst person in the world" Monday for what he called a failure to report that there were two places where Muslims worshiped in the World Trade Center before the 9/11 attacks, even as they covered the controversy over the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero.

On Saturday, New York Times religion columnist Samuel Freedman wrote about a Muslim prayer room that had existed on the 17th floor of the South Tower up until its destruction in 2001. Muslims working in the North Tower also used a stairwell to pray there, he reported.

"Given the vitriolic opposition now to the proposal to build a Muslim community center two blocks from ground zero," Freedman wrote, "one might say something else has been destroyed: the realization that Muslim people and the Muslim religion were part of the life of the World Trade Center."

On his show, Olbermann blasted the press for failing to find this out:

"Throughout this stupid, childish, xenophobic debate, there was nobody who mentioned this stunningly relevant fact until [Freedman] did it in the New York Times this past Saturday, September 11th," he said. "There were two Mosques in Ground Zero the moment it became Ground Zero."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source

Michael Moore: 'We Should Always Stand Up Against the Angry Mob'

Dwight Eisenhower, 1957, Dedication of Islamic Center in Washington; "I should like to assure you, my Islamic friends, that under the American Constitution, under American tradition, and in American hearts, this Center, this place of worship, is just as welcome as could be a similar edifice of any other religion. Indeed, America would fight with her whole strength for your right to have here your own church and worship according to your own conscience ...

"This concept is indeed a part of America, and without that concept we would be something else than what we are."

Colin Powell, 2008; "Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? ... Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way."

Video discussion with the Imam that served for the Bush administration, helping to stop terror and give information to the CIA to protect Americans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYJhtDAbvJg

Complete transcript of the interview is here. The complete video isn't available, so that will have to do for now.
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The Media and Islam-o-mania: Gasoline for the Fire

Posted by James Poniewozik Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 12:06 pm

9 Comments • Related Topics: news media , sarah palin, islam, koran, ground zero, park 51

Breaking news, everybody: Sarah Palin posted something on Facebook! Responding to a Florida church's plans to burn Korans on 9/11, she writes:

Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.

Beyond the headline—Palin Denounces Koran-Burning—there's a rhetorical move there you could have seen coming blindfolded: Palin, who jumped in early on the call to refudiate the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero, now frames the proposed burning as being "much like" the center. The media loving a good easy equivalence, you can expect to see a lot of this—the contention, or simply the assumption, that burning a holy book is equivalent to building a house of worship where other people don't want it.

What's more, it'll probably be successful. All you need is enough stories that use "Koran burning" and "Ground Zero mosque" (a misnomer, but a Google-friendly one) together, and the meme becomes, "See, we denounced this offensive thing; why can't they give up that equally offensive thing?"

I don't agree with that framing for many reasons—to take just one point, it's not as if there's an argument that Koran-burning would be more sensitive a few blocks away—but in any case one aspect of Palin's comparison is right. The book-burning controversy and the mosque-building controversy are comparable—in that they are both largely creations of their media coverage.

First, the Park 51 Islamic center has been in the works for a long time. It was covered in the press last year without outrage. On Fox News in December, conservative commentator Laura Ingraham interviewed Daisy Khan, wife of the project's imam, and told her that no one seemed to have a problem with the center and that "I like what you're trying to do." Then, about half a year later, a right-wing blogger and the New York Post decided that the project was, in fact, offensive. Whereupon various conservative politicians and pundits, Palin included, determined that they too were very offended, or at least that it was politically advantageous to be. (See Justin Elliott's reporting in Salon for extensive details. Salon, for which I once worked, is admittedly a left-of-center outlet, but the timeline is the timeline.)

The nonstory was suddenly a story because someone decided to make an issue of making it an issue. And you know where we went from there.

The plan by Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., to burn Korans on 9/11, meanwhile, got attention for a couple of sadly predictable reasons. First, because tiny groups of fringe idiots—hate protesters like Rev. Fred Phelps, flag burners—regularly get attention out of proportion to their significance, because they push people's buttons and that means ratings and readers. (If I wanted to drive traffic to this blog, I'd just put "Ground Zero Mosque" and "Koran" in every headline, with the occasional "Bieber" thrown in.) And second, it coincided roughly with stories already in the media—thanks largely to the suddenly-a-controversy Islamic center—about Muslims, tolerance, religious freedom, terrorism, Islamophobia, people-believing-Obama-is-a-Muslim, and sundry other hot-button reliables.

In any case, I'm not sure that the media at this point can or should, as Palin advised Pastor Jones, "stand down." This is, unfortunately, one of those cases in which, by having become news, the story is now making legitimate news. World leaders and military leaders have weighed in, there is real international attention to the story and the prospect of real-world, non-virtual protest and unrest if the burning goes on. Meanwhile, here in New York, anti-Park 51 protesters are bringing decommissioned missiles to Ground Zero. Because, you know, sensitivity.

In the meantime, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf spoke on CNN about the plans last night. It's worth hearing, if anybody is actually doing any listening to anyone else at this point.

Source

US pastor Terry Jones cancels Koran burning

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US pastor Terry Jones: "We have agreed to cancel our event"

The pastor of a small US church who planned to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 has cancelled his protest.

Terry Jones said he was calling off the event after the group behind a planned Islamic centre near Ground Zero in New York agreed to relocate it.

But the cultural centre's organisers said they had no plans to move it.

Continue reading the main story

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• Koran burning and the First Amendment

Mr Jones' plan had been internationally condemned and had already sparked many protests around the world.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates had telephoned him to urge him to reconsider his plans. The pastor had also been visited several times by the FBI.

Mr Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, which has fewer than 50 members, had named Saturday "International Burn a Koran Day".

But at a news conference, he said he was now dropping the plans and urged his supporters to do the same.

"We would right now ask no one to burn Korans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it," he said.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

If they were willing to either cancel the mosque at the Ground Zero location, or if they were willing to move it away from that location, we would consider that sign from God”

End Quote Terry Jones

• Jones statement in full

He said he would travel to New York on Saturday to meet those behind the Islamic centre, saying they had "agreed to move the location".

"The American people do not want the mosque there, and, of course, Muslims do not want us to burn the Koran," he said.

"If it's not moved, then I think Islam is a very poor example of religion. I think that would be very pitiful. I do not expect that."

'No agreement'

Mr Jones was joined at his news conference by Muhammad Musri from the Islamic Foundation of Central Florida.

Mr Musri said he and Mr Jones had committed to travelling to New York "to come to a decision on moving the mosque".

"We are committed to dissolving the situation here and there," he said.

He also thanked Mr Jones for his "courage and his willingness to take these serious events that are unfolding".

But the organisers of the New York centre said no agreement had been reached with Mr Jones.

AFP news agency quoted Daisy Khan, wife of the imam behind the project, as saying: "We don't know anything about it".

Mr Musri later clarified to reporters that no guarantees about moving the Islamic centre had been given.

He and Mr Jones had only agreed to fly to New York to discuss the location of the Islamic centre with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

Plans for the Islamic centre have prompted fierce debate in the US because of its proximity to the scene of the 9/11 terror attacks.

President Barack Obama had earlier warned Mr Jones the proposed burning would be "a recruitment bonanza" for al-Qaeda.

The US State Department had warned US citizens of an increased risk of attack, while international police organisation Interpol also issued a warning of the risk of violent response.

Source

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Commentary

One small step for Muslims, one Giant Leap for American values, principles, and Ideals.

That's what this great country was built upon, not on isolationism, hatred, and extremism.

Well done America, Well done.