Islam today - issue 6 - April 2013

issue 6 vol.1April 2013

Atheists, critical thinking and tradition

Western Orientalism vs. Long overdue rights

We are equal but not the same

UK £3.00

Atheist

Becritical

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Editorial5 Quantity over Quality; what are we

eating?In view of recent scandals in the food in-dustry Amir De Martino believes it is time to reconsider our relationship with food

In brief

6 News from around the world

Life & Community

10 International Children’s Book Day

Islam today suggests some titles for Muslim children

14 We are equal but not the same

The word equality in gender discourse has different meanings according to different ideologies; Hamid Waqar explains how Islam theorises equality among men and women

Youth Matters

16 This is my story. What’s yours?

Being a victim of mental abuse, Nadia Jamil thinks it’s important to talk about this issue to show victims they are not alone

17 ‘Walk into the face of your fears’Nadia Jamil sees fear as a powerful emo-tion that has a massive bearing on success

Arts

18 Celebrating South Africa

Moriam Grillo showcases artists whose work celebrates South Africa Freedom Day

In the spotlightHamid Ajami, the founder of an innova-tive new style of Persian calligraphy called ‘Moala’

HeritageVakil Mosque - the Zand Dynasty, Shiraz Iran

The Place to be London’s Globe Theatre is hosting a series of Shakespeare’s plays on the anniversary of his death on April 23

Masterpiece‘Flight’ – The Masterpiece of Nigerian artist Yusuf Grillo

22 Who am I? Poem by Fatema Valji

Opinion24 The Trial of Galileo

Revd Frank Gelli explains how Galileo, a devout believer, was tried by the very same Church he once considered serving

26 Western Orientalism vs. Long overdue rights M Haghir believes that the fundamental ba-sis of Zionist politics is a myth

Politics30 Obama the Drone Ranger

Despite the peace rhetoric in his rise to the presidency, Obama has now emerged as a staunch advocate of drone attacks, says Reza Murshid

32 The myth of the Muslim TideA book review by Mohsen Biparva

Feature36 Adios El Comandante

Despite western media attempts to demon-ise Chavez, he remains an icon for all those who want a more just, equitable world or-der says Reza Murshid

38 Islamic Finance Today Nehad Khanfar looks at how Islamic Finance can provide a new opportunity for a broken global financial system

Cover40 St George

Yasser Ahmed unravels the mystery of the Iranian-Arab who became the Patron Saint of England

Faith42 Atheists, critical thinking and

traditionAtheists such as Richard Dawkins are less revolutionary and scientific than they make out, says Alexander Khaleeli

44 Lady Fatima Al-Zahra(a)

Ali Jawad looks back at the patience and revolutionary struggle of the beloved daughter of the Prophet Muhammad(s)

Contents

Disclaimer: Where opinion is expressed it is that of the author and does not nec-essarily coincide with the editorial views of the publisher or islam today. All infor-mation in this magazine is verified to the best of the authors’ and the publisher’s ability. However, islam today shall not be liable or responsible for loss or damage arising from any users’ reliance on information obtained from the magazine.

April 2013

Published Monthly Issue, 6 Vol, 1

islam today magazine intends to address the concerns and aspirations of a vibrant Muslim community by providing readers with inspiration, information, a sense of community and solutions through its unique and specialised contents. It also sets out to help Muslims and non-Muslims, further understand and appreciate the nature of a dynamic faith.

Publisher: Islamic Centre of England 140 Maida Vale London, W9 1QB - UK

ISSN 2051-2503

Managing Director Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour

Chief Editor Amir De Martino

Managing Editor Anousheh Mireskandari

Political Editor Reza Murshid

Health Editor Laleh Lohrasbi

Art Editor Moriam Grillo

Layout and Design Sasan Sarab - Michele Paolicelli

Design and Production PSD UK Ltd.

Information [email protected]

Letters to the Editor [email protected]

Contributions and Submissions [email protected]

Subscriptions [email protected]

www.islam-today.net

Contributors

Alexander Khaleeli

Ali Carlentini

Ali Jawad

Cleo Cantone

Fatema Valji

Frank Julian Gelli

Ghazaleh Kamrani

Hamid Waqar

Mohammad Haghir

Mohsen Biparva

Nadia Jamil

Nehad Khanfar

Yasser Ahmed

Contact us

Editorial team

Back Cover View of Topkapi Palace, Istambul, Turkey The Palace became a Museum on 3rd April 1924

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Recent food scandals have highlighted a degenerating situation that sees us, the consumers, as defenceless

spectators in a match without scruples where price comes before quality.

The undeclared horse meat found in food across Europe is part of the symptom; a situation that can be traced back to several years ago, when big food chains warned producers that their clients must spend less to eat, and bullied them into accepting ever lower prices for their products. While we might think that reducing prices is a good thing, the reality is that food chains were neither operating on the basis of a commercial ethic nor out of respect towards consumers. By forcing producers to lower their prices big chains were effectively telling them that price is everything and quality is less important.In an effort to cut production costs, many corners were cut. Checks on the traceability of products were compromised. In a short, the security

of what we eat became less important than the price we pay. With this arrangement, day after day the skein has become more and more tangled and the continuous surfacing of food scandals is but the result of a system on the verge of imploding.Farmers are definitely losing out to the big chains and constantly being forced to employ more questionable practices. But the more serious consequence is that consumers’ health is being put at risk by consumption of substandard foods.Perhaps we as consumers bear some responsibility for not being more attentive to what we eat. Certainly the current economic climate does not help; families are having to cut costs by buying cheaper foods, even if they are inferior quality. However in Britain we spend less than 10% of household income on food (mobility and communication top the list). This means that buying good food is secondary to our desire to spend on mobiles, computers, leisure etc…. But how can we break this vicious circle?Perhaps we need to start to review our relationship with food. Maybe food should be valued on the basis of health and the impact it has on the environment. As Raj Patel, author of The Value of Nothing affirms, the price of goods today represents a distortion and as he provocatively put it, the price of a hamburger today should be around 200 US dollars. This is a figure that reflects the impact on the environment of the entire cycle of production of this item, including its carbon footprint, and the treatment of illnesses associated with eating habits developed as a result of by its use.Environment, food and health are connected by one umbilical cord with food lying in the middle of this triad. Organic food must become

the holder of the new flag, since it is already part of a process of realisation that considers environment and health. Organic producers have already started production that is environmentally friendly and takes into account reduction of Co2, biodiversity and lower use of water.If this is not enough, we should consider the fact that for every hectare, “conventional” agriculture uses 50% more chemical fertilisers than organic farming. For every kilo of “conventional” food, 50 grams of chemical substances are used, while it is just 5 grams in organic farming. This is why organic food costs more, because it is better quality than mass produced “normal food”. When Wendell Berry wrote that “eating is an agricultural act” in his ‘The Pleasure Of Eating’ essay more than 20 years ago he meant that we are not only passive consumers but that we play an active part in maintaining the systems that feed us. Depending on how we spend our money we could sustain a food industry dedicated to quantity, convenience and low prices, or an industry organised around the fundamental concept of real value such as quality and health. Sure, shopping in accordance with the latter system requires more effort and money but when we start to see shopping as a form of voting for health in its wider context, compromising on quality soon starts to seem like a false economy.

“It is He who produces gardens trellised and without trellises, and palm-trees and crops of diverse produce, olives and pomegranates, similar and dissimilar. Eat of its fruits when it fructifies, and give its due on the day of harvest, and do not be wasteful; indeed He does not like the wasteful.” (Quran 6:141) •

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Editorial

Interfaith46 Actus Tragicus (Dramatic Act)

The suffering of Jesus(a) and his resurrec-tion is at the heart of Christian theology but as Amir De Martino explains, Muslims can also use Easter to thank God for His grace towards Jesus(a)

50 The Jesuit PopeWith the election of a new leader, the Cath-olic Church starts a new chapter in its his-tory. Ali Carlentini explores the origins of the Jesuit Order, from which the new Pope hails

Science52 Medical Photography

Ghazaleh Kamrani explores foetal devel-opment through some amazing medical photography

Health56 Meningitis: a killer disease

Laleh Lohrasbi explains how a simple jab could reduce mortality due to Meningitis

58 Hypertension: a silent threat ‘World Health Day’ 2013

59 DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) 60 years after the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, the exact role of the other 50% of the human genome is still a long standing puzzle to scientists, says Laleh Lohrasbi

Places60 Al-Qarawiyyin

Cleo Cantone finds the feminine touch at work in one of the world’s oldest Islamic universities: the University-Mosque of Fez in Morocco

What & Where66 Listings and Events

Friday Nights Thought Forum - Islamic Centre of England

Calligraphy Classes - The Arab British Cen-tre

MENA Construction and Infrastructure - British Expertise & the Middle East Association

The Bahari Foundation Lecture in Iranian Art And Culture (Seminar) - SOAS

The BIG Drive Ambulance Aid Convoy - Muslim Hands

Identities and Islam (Symposium) - The University of Southampton

Modern Parenting and Educating Children (Book Launch) - Birkbeck College

The Social Science and Education Online Conference & Doctoral Symposium

Islam, Science and Scientism - British Mus-lim Heritage Centre, Manchester

Islamic Banking and Finance (Conference)- Oxford Institute Of Islamic Banking and Finance

Madarij Al-Salikin (A Weekend Intensive Study) - Birkbeck College

Quantity over Quality;what food are we eating?

Glossary of Islamic Symbols The letters [swt] after the name of Allah [swt] (God), stand for the Arabic phrase

subhanahu wa-ta’ala meaning: “Glorious and exalted be He”.

The letter [s] after the name of the Prophet Muhammad[s], stands for the Arabic phrase sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam, meaning: “May Allah bless him and grant him peace”.

The letter [a] after the name of the Imams from the progeny of the Prophet Muhammad[s], and for his daughter Fatimah[a] stands for the Arabic phrase ‘alayhis-salaam, ‘alayhas-salaam (feminine) and ‘alayhimus-salaam (plural) meaning respectively: (God’s) Peace be with him/ her/ them.

Contents

Amir De Martino

Chief Editor

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Strasbourg Mosque serves as a window to Islamic world

The Great Mosque of Strasbourg has emerged as a window to the Islamic world. The newly built mosque has become a tourist attraction, a destination for school excursions and a meeting place where often uneasy French people come face to face with their increasingly numerous Muslim neighbours.

The mosque was inaugurated in September after a three-decade controversy over its construction. Conceived by an Italian architect, Paolo Portoghesi, the mosque’s 14,000-square-foot prayer hall, covered by a 40-foot-wide copper dome and flanked by soaring wings designed to suggest a blooming flower, has become a familiar landmark beside a graceful curve in the Ill River, near the touristy Petite France neighbourhood of Strasbourg.

More than 20,000 visitors inspected the construction site between July 2011 and July 2012. In the four months since Interior Minister Manuel Valls and Morocco’s Religious Affairs Minister, Ahmed Toufiq, presided over the inauguration, 10,000 visitors have taken guided tours of the finished building and the tempo of visits is accelerating, according to Said Aalla,

a Strasbourg jurist who is president of the mosque’s governing council.As word of the mosque and its open-arms policy spreads, tourists have begun asking for directions at the

Strasbourg Tourism Office, which sits in the shadow of the medieval cathedral, Notre Dame of Strasbourg, which has long dominated the landscape of this much-fought-over city of 450,000

on the border between France and Germany.Aalla said the mosque’s secondary vocation as a public monument did not evolve accidentally. He said the members of the governing council decided early on that if Strasbourg’s estimated 40,000 Muslims were to live comfortably with their Christian neighbours, they had the duty to explain their religion and familiarise the public with Islam. ‘From the very beginning, we wanted to be open to the people around us,’ he said.Although a symbol of ecumenism now, the Great Mosque of Strasbourg has also been an example of the tensions surrounding France’s growing Muslim minority. Under discussion since the late 1970s, it almost was not built. By the time it was, the project had been truncated.

French man jailed for tearing niqab off Muslimah A French man has been given a five-month suspended prison sentence for tearing a Muslim woman’s veil from her face in the city of Nantes.The 30-year old carried out the attack at a fairground last September and

claimed that he was trying to enforce a French law banning women from wearing the niqab or face-covering veils in public.Pleading guilty to a charge of aggravated assault, the man was given his sentence by a criminal court which said that ‘ordinary citizens are not entitled to take the law into their own hands’.He was also ordered to pay compensation to his victim and was convicted of giving police a false identity. A law banning full-face veils for women was passed two years ago in France.

UN denounces US drone attacks on Pakistan

US drone strikes in Pakistan violate the country’s sovereignty, the head of a UN team investigating casualties said after a secret research trip. According to him, the Pakistani government has confirmed at least 400 civilian deaths by US drones.UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson, who visited the region, said that Pakistani officials made it clear the government does not consent to the strikes.Emmerson’s investigation team has gathered numerous reports from residents who witnessed the terrifying attacks.‘Adult males carrying out ordinary

daily tasks were frequently the victims of such strikes,’ a statement from the UN Office for Human Rights said.The strikes have sparked growing controversy due to their secret nature. However, the US has denied that its attacks have killed hundreds of people.‘The position of the government of Pakistan is quite clear,’ said Emmerson. ‘It does not consent to the use of drones by the United States on its territory and it considers this to be a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.’ The drone campaign ‘involves the use of force on the territory of another state without its consent and is therefore a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,’ he said. The statement came days after Emmerson ended his three-day visit to Pakistan. The visit was kept secret until Emmerson left the country.US officials insist the drone attacks were part of the US War on Terror campaign, aimed at bringing down Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan. In 2011, Pakistani Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani officially sanctioned the shooting down of US drones. The directive followed a US airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November 2011.In retaliation, Pakistan closed US access to its Shamsi airbase in the southwest of the country, which was allegedly used to launch drones.According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, from June 2004 through mid-September 2012, between 2,562 and 3,325 people were killed in drone strikes in Pakistan, mostly in the North Waziristan region. Some 474 to 881 of those killed were civilians, including 176 children. Another 1,300 were wounded.The UN began its investigation into civilian casualties from drone strikes and other targeted killings in

Pakistan, as well as in several other countries, back in January

Hijabi graces film awards ceremony

The wife of a Palestinian filmmaker has become the first Muslimah in full Hijab to grace the annual Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars.Soraya Burnat wore a beautiful traditional Palestinian gown with soft beige Hijab to compliment her outfit.

Mrs Burnat accompanied her

eight year-old son Gibreel and her husband Emad Burnat who had been nominated for directing 5 Broken Cameras, the first Palestinian documentary ever to be nominated for an Oscar.The film has already won awards at the Sundance Film Festival and the Cinema Eye Honours.

It features footage that the olive farmer-turned-filmmaker shot using five cameras in his occupied West Bank village of Bil’in, from everyday activities with his family to protests and shootings.Like so many parents, Burnat wanted to document Gibreel’s first steps and smiles.

Secret Bradley Manning testimony released on web

A group pressing for more open government has flouted a military ban and released a secret recording of testimony by US Army private Bradley Manning, accused of leaking a mass of classified files.

The release marks the first time since Manning was arrested in May 2010 that the world has heard his voice as he awaits trial for giving material on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as diplomatic cables, to the WikiLeaks website.Reporters covering a series of pre-trial hearings being held at a military tribunal at Fort Meade in Maryland have been barred from making any video or audio recordings or from taking photographs of Manning.‘We hope this recording will shed light on one of the most secret court trials in recent history,’ the Freedom of Press Foundation (FPF) said, as it published the audio-file on its website.

FRANCE

PAKISTAN

PALESTINE

USA

In brief

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New Pontiff elected

Muslims in Europe see hope for better relations with the Roman Catholic Church after the new pope took the name Francis, recalling the 13th century saint known for his efforts to launch Christian dialogue with Islam.Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio chose the name after his election in honour of St. Francis of Assisi, who is revered for his radical poverty and humility. Francis met the sultan of Egypt in 1219 on a peace mission during the Fifth Crusade.‘As Muslims of the West, we take as a particularly hopeful sign the reminder, in the name of the new pontiff, of the great example of sanctity and

opening to the East and to Islam that St. Francis of Assisi gave,’ the Italian Islamic Religious Community (COREIS) said in a statement.Vatican relations with the Muslim world were badly strained in 2006 when now retired Pope Benedict XVI quoted a Byzantine emperor as saying Islam was a violent and irrational religion.That sparked widespread protests in the Muslim world. Benedict apologised but many Muslims remained wary of the German-born pontiff. Such reserve was echoed in congratulations the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) sent the new pope, saying it hoped ‘the relationship between Islam and Christianity will regain its cordiality and sincere friendship’.Muslim leaders in his native Argentina said the new pope had visited them several times while he was archbishop of Buenos Aires and had cordial relations with the country’s 800,000

Muslims, mostly of Syrian and Lebanese origin.‘We have a lot of faith in the breadth of his vision and his openness to dialogue,’ said Galeb Moussa, president of the Federation of Argentinian Arab Organisations.He thought Francis could help foster Catholic dialogue with Muslims in Europe because he had ‘no links to the Eurocentric axis where Islam in

Europe is being attacked and bad-mouthed’. The new pope apparently focused his dialogue with Muslims on his home country. Vatican officials said he was not known to have participated in many international dialogue meetings. •

‘We wish to make sure that the voice of this generation’s most prolific whistle blower can be heard - literally - by the world.’The tape was made during a one-hour statement in February when Manning, in a firm and assured voice, explained that he leaked 70,000 confidential government files to start a ‘public debate’.When he deployed to Iraq he found himself alienated from his comrades and at odds with an army that ‘seemed not to value human life’, he told the hearing.In the audio, Manning is heard telling the hearing ‘it burdens me emotionally’ that he witnessed a video of US soldiers in Baghdad celebrating as they gunned down what turned out to be civilians including two journalists.‘The most alarming aspect of the video to me, however, was the seemingly delightful bloodlust they appeared to have,’ he said of the ‘Collateral Murder’ video which sparked global outrage when it was released by WikiLeaks.He compared the soldiers ‘to a child torturing ants with a magnifying glass’.The 25-year-old, who is being held in military custody pending trial, said he would plead guilty to 10 of the less serious of the 22 charges against him, but would deny aiding US enemies, a crime that carries a life sentence.The court has agreed to accept his plea on the lesser allegations – under which Manning faces 20 years in military custody. But the prosecution still intends to pursue the 12 remaining charges.‘Extreme secrecy in our courts, just like in our government’s policies and our politics, is an anathema to democracy,’ the FPF said.‘The courtrooms of America should be open to the public so they can see and hear what is being done in their name.’

Passover Celebration on the Web at www.exodusconversations.org

A new website offering insights into Jewish, Muslim and Christian views on themes raised by the Exodus and The Passover celebration has been launched on the web.

In response to rising anti-Muslim sentiment in America, three distinguished writers, a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim, began an extended discussion to explore the story of the Exodus, the ancient saga of the Israelites’ struggle for freedom. Selecting the Exodus, an important narrative in all three traditions, the writers have constructed a new resource to promote understanding that can be used for the celebration of Passover and for interfaith dialogues year round.In the side-by- side presentation of the story of the Exodus as written in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Old Testament and the Qur’an, Moses emerges as a hero and Pharaoh a villain. Muslim and Jewish traditions around death and mourning prove very similar. While the New Testament does not repeat the Exodus story, Passover imagery suffuses the gospels and letters.By launching Exodus Conversations on the web, the project participants hope to encourage international public discussion about important questions and themes common to our humanity and religious traditions.

Muslim Women’s Art ExhibitlaunchedTo mark International Women’s Day, the International Museum of Women (IMOW) launched “ “Muslim Women’s Art and Voices”, a free, online exhibit featuring multimedia works from artists spanning the globe.

The initiative prides itself on being interactive and has partnered with the Women’s Museum in Denmark, the Ayala Museum in the Philippines, and the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation in the UAE, to promote forty specific artists as ‘Muslima Ambassadors’.

It also includes an open call for submissions from the public and will update the gallery’s content on a rolling basis.

“We are inspired by the courage and creativity of Muslim women around the world,” says Catherine King, IMOW’s Interim Executive Director. “Our hope is that this exhibition will foster a dialogue between Muslim women and the larger community of women and men of all backgrounds who are working for tolerance, equality and justice.”

VATICAN

In brief

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Since 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday, 2 April, International Children’s Book Day has been celebrated all over the world, aiming to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books.The celebratory day is co-ordinated by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing children and books together.

The celebration is an excuse to support the growth and development of indigenous quality literature and to promote fiction, non-fiction and quality translation. It also aims to promote ways to better distribute books and other media while encouraging creators and publishers to produce quality works in order to enhance knowledge about children’s literature.

The following is a selection of some Islamic children’s books especially selected for

our readers.

Where The Streets Had A Name Randa Abdel-Fattah Scholastic Press, 2010, 320 pp.

Thirteen-year-old Hayaat is on a mission. She believes a handful of soil from her grandmother’s ancestral home in Jerusalem will save her beloved Sitti Zeynab’s life. The only problem is that Hayaat and her family live behind the impenetrable wall that divides the West Bank, and they’re on the wrong side of checkpoints, curfews, and the travel permit system. Follow Hayaat and Samy as they undertake a transformative journey.

Elvis the CamelBarbara Devine and Patricia Al FakhriStacey International, 2001, hardcover, 31 pp.

Elvis the Camel is a heart-warming, true story of Elvis, a young camel struck by a truck and nursed back to health, told from the camel’s perspective. The book is illustrated throughout with Patricia al-Fakhri’s watercolour paintings. Elementary school level.

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Extra Credit Andrew Clementsillustrated by Mark ElliottAthemeum Books, 2009, hardback, 183 pp.

Best-selling author Andrew Clements hatches an unlikely friendship between two very different kids. An American student is given an extra-credit assignment to find an international pen pal as her last chance to avoid repeating sixth grade. Her letter finds the hands of Sadeed, an excellent Afghan student with a good command of English. An enriching friendship develops but becomes problematic for each child’s community and cultural traditions. A thoughtful and empathetic young adult novel.

The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust

Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland Desaix Holiday House, 2010, paperback, 40 pp. (For ages 8 and up)

During the Nazi occupation Paris, many Jews found refuge in an seemingly unlikely place: the sprawling complex of the Grand Mosque of Paris. Not just a place of worship but a community centre, the mosque became a vital hiding place for Jews of all ages, especially children. Beautifully illustrated and well researched, The Grand Mosque of Paris tells an important chapter of WWII history.

The Genius of Islam: How Muslims Made the Modern World

Bryn BarnardKnopf Books, hardcover, 2012, 40 pp.

The Muslim world has often been a bridge between East and West, but many of Islam’s crucial innovations are hidden within the folds of history. In this important book, Bryn Barnard uses short, engaging text and gorgeous full-colour artwork to bring Islam’s contributions gloriously to life. Full of information and pictures, The Genius of Islam is an invaluable guide to a fascinating topic.

Cinderella: An Islamic TaleFawzia Gilaniillustrated by Shireen Adams Kube Publishing, 2010, hardcover, 40 pp.

Set in medieval Andalusia, this retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale introduces readers to Zahra, a gentle and pious orphan left at the mercy of an uncaring stepmother and stepsisters following the death of her father. Richly illustrated by Shireen Adams,

this Islamic version of Cinderella helps instil universal values in which faith, goodness and prayer are rewarded in the end.

The Sky of Afghanistan Ana de Eulate Cuento de Luz SL, 2012, hardcover, 24 pp.

Beautifully illustrated and undeniably moving, The Sky of Afghanistan is the story of a little Afghan girl’s dream of peace. As her country is wracked by war, her imagination drifts toward the images of peace for her people and for her country. Her powerful dreams soon expand and fill the homes and hearts of those around her, uniting a people in their common desire for peace.

Ramadan MoonNa’ima B Robert, Shirin AdlFrancis Books, 2009, hardcover, 32 pp.

Muslims all over the world observe Ramadan and the joyful days of Eid-ul-Fitr at the end of the month of fasting as the most special time of year. This lyrical and inspiring picture book captures the wonder and delight of this great annual event. Accompanied by illustrations inspired by Iranian art, the story follows the waxing of the moon from the first new crescent to full moon and waning until Eid is heralded by the first sighting of the second new moon. This book is for all children who celebrate Ramadan and those in the wider communities who want to understand why it is such a special experience for Muslims.

Aziz the StorytellerVi Hughes and Stefan CzerneckiCrocodile Books, 2002, hardcover, 28 pp.

An enchanting story of a storyteller who becomes old and weary, ready to retire, and of Aziz, a young boy who loves to listen to the tales in the marketplace. Aziz’s father, though, scolds the boy for wasting his time. When the old storyteller offers Aziz his carpet, in which are woven all the stories of the world, Aziz must make a life-changing decision. Ages 4-8.

All books listed above can be obtained through Amazon or middleeastbooks.com

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The Islamic tradition states that men and women are equal but different in the eyes of God. The term equality is a loaded term that has been used by politicians and social activists to support their own

personal agendas. What does it mean when Islam states that the two genders are equal? Is Islam overlooking the physical and psychological differences of the sexes and stating that in

all cases women and men are to be treated the same?

These questions become clear when we examine Islam’s stand on gender. Sexism was at its

height in the

Arab peninsula before the advent of Islam. During this period, rightfully termed the “Age of Ignorance,” women were not afforded any rights whatsoever. They were considered chat-tels. One would count the women that he possessed along with his farm animals. For instance, if one was asked: “How many animals do you have,” he might have answered: “I own two camels, three sheep, and four women.”

In many cases, women were even denied the undeniable right of life. Fathers in this period would become extremely angry and ashamed when they realised that their new-born baby was a girl. Their faces would become red and they would storm out of the house carrying the baby and bury her alive. The Qur’an states: “When one of them is brought the news of a female [new-born], his face becomes darkened and he chokes with suppressed agony. He hides from the people out of distress at the news he has been brought: shall he retain it in humilia-tion, or bury it in the ground! Look! Evil is the judgement that they make.” (16:58-59)

The Prophet Muhammad(s) effected a sea-change in how society viewed

women. Over an incredibly short period of

time

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women were given the right to life, inheritance, freedom, and were no longer regarded as property.

One needs to take a breath to ponder over this. Usually massive social change, such as the status of women before and after the advent of Islam, takes at least one full genera-tion or longer to accomplish. Therefore, the noble Prophet of Islam was able to do more for women during his lifetime than anybody else in the history of mankind. Western feminists should idolise him; they should write his name on their walls. The professors of women’s studies in universities should have entire courses about him.

It is important to compare the heroes of feminism to the Prophet Muhammad(s) in order to recognise how effective he was. One of the most famous pioneers of women’s rights in America is Susan B. Anthony. Coins have been made with her portrait on them and centres have been named after her. What did she do? One of her biggest accomplishments was her contribution to securing women’s right to vote. In her life-

time, women were denied this right in the United States.

In 1872 she broke the law and voted. She was arrested, tried, and fined for her actions. Her actions eventually led to women obtaining suffrage.

Compare her struggle to that of the Prophet(s). In his society women were buried alive. Women were literally consid-

ered to be farm animals. Women had no rights at all. He was able to change these harsh realities

during just 23 years of his adult life. Susan B. Anthony simply helped the voting move-

ment forward. There is no comparison.

When the feminists realise the greatness of the Prophet Muhammad(s) they will also realise that there are differences between their outlook on gender issues and the Islamic perspective. The word that is thrown around in universities and academic circles is equality. It is said that men and women are equal. Thus they should have the same rights, roles, and responsibilities.

Islam rejects this notion. First, it states that the term equality is being misused. It states that men and women are equal in humanity. A woman is no more a human than a man and a man is no more a human than a woman. God looks at members of both genders equally and judges them both according to their piety. But this does not mean that they must have the same roles and responsibilities. Rather, the Islamic view takes into consideration the physical and psychological differences of the sexes.

Although men and women are the same in most ways, they do have clear differences. The average woman enters puberty two years before the average man. Her life span is five years longer. She carries 70% more fat and 40% less muscle. She is also five inches shorter than the average man. Apart from the physical differences, women normally express emotion much easier, can smell fainter odours, and are helped more often. A woman is twice as susceptible to depression and anxiety as a man and her risk of developing an eating disorder is 10 times greater. Men on the other hand are more likely to become dependent on alcohol or drugs, diagnosed with autism or an antisocial personality.

Should these differences be overlooked? Should society conform to the theory that men and women must have the same roles and responsibilities? Islam states that men and women are equal in humanity and will be judged equally by Allah in the Hereafter. It also states that the genders have obvious differences in their creation, and thus, must have different roles and responsibilities. In His infinite Wisdom Allah has created a system where the differences between the genders complement each other and are used to improve society. •

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Hamid Waqar explains how Islam theorises equality among men and women.The word equality in gender discourse has different meanings according to different ideologies;

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Being a victim of mental abuse, more commonly known as bullying, I think it’s important to talk about this issue hoping that others who have experienced bullying can relate to my story and feel better knowing that they are not alone.

The important thing to remember in life is that we are only here for a little while and so we must be very watchful of our behaviour towards others not only because we are account-able for it later in life but also because the kind of energy we keep around ourselves can build or destroy things including human beings.

Vulnerability is something that is taken for granted by certain people. A bully only prey on someone’s weakness. It’s like a parasite that feeds on other organisms and sucks the life out of them in order to stay alive. In my case it would be a huge amount of people who would team up against me. Such a group would always have a ringleader who would incite the rest into blindly

following him and helping him feed on my vulnerability.

I have heard that if you leave hens together in a cage, after a while one of them will rise to become the ringleader. She will then find a weaker hen and start pecking her. Before long the rest of the hens will follow her behaviour and start attacking the same hen. I always understood that the ringleader who bullied me did so because of his own insecurities but what I failed to understand was why did the rest follow him?

This led me to remember the example Imam Ali(a) once gave, that God - the Exalted - gave the angels intellect without desires, He gave the animals desires without intellect, and He gave both to the sons of Adam. So a man whose intellect prevails over his desires is better than the angels, whilst a man whose desire prevails over his intellect is worse than the animals.

For a bully or an abuser it’s mainly about his desire to control and exert his power over the weak. With the rest of the group the bully will try to trap you by finding out your major weaknesses like financial problems, lack of family support, immigration status, religious background or anything else that allows them to exert their power over you and that is when you need to seek help.

Unfortunately this is where the trouble lies because subtle, often invisible, bullying like mental torture has a far deeper effect on a person than the physical abuse that is visible. A physically abused person can seek help but mentally abused people find themselves isolated as no one can really relate to their problems. Often the only person who can help them is someone who has been through a similar experience.

Now the question is how do you break free if you are caught in such a mess? In my personal experience if you have strong faith it can be a wall of strength for you to help you stand up on your feet after breaking free. It is never easy because now you have to break that glass castle the abuser built around you which gave you a feeling of fake security. Once you are out you are hurt more because you feel ashamed for allowing yourself to fall into such a trap. Your confidence breaks, you feel disgusted with yourself, you feel like you are weak and good for nothing because the castle around you was only made of glass and it was cold with no care, love or concern for your wellbeing. •

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I cannot tell you what success is as everyone would have their own definition. What I do know for sure is that fear is a very powerful emotion and has a massive bearing on success. It is fear that can turn things around in a good or bad way. Ever wondered why we are asked to fear God? Or the Day of Judgement? It’s because it is this fear of being monitored at all times that motivates us to do good things in life so that on the Last Day we have fewer regrets.

But what if this same emotion was used by people to manipulate each other? Such that they would be scared to speak the truth for fear of getting into trouble. Should they just stay quiet out of fear of being killed or disliked?

The way to overcome this is to realise that no matter what we achieve in this short life we won’t take anything with us when we are six foot under. So what is the point of having all these fears in life when we know that at any moment we can be taken back from this world.

The main ingredient for success is the elimination of the fears that make us weak as a person. Like what will people say, will they laugh if I get it wrong, what if I don’t win? Let’s pause for a second here, who are we trying to

impress really? Each other? For what? Shouldn’t we be helping each rather than turning each other into demigods?

Some people might call them insecurities but I see them as minor fears that can be overcome easily only if we face them. These fears make our foundations weak and take away our

full potential. In the eyes of God the best person is the one who is most pious. Then why do some of us want to impress each other and not the one who created us?

Old habits die hard they say. That’s true but with knowledge and wisdom they can easily be broken.

Demigods that we create around us in the form of other people are seekers just like us.

They have their own fears. So why do we waste our energy to please them. Giving back to each other with absolutely no expectation of any return except from the One who created us can solve so many of our troubles and worries.

The day we realise this fact and live by it we will begin to walk into the face of our fears and become much more successful and content with our lives. •

Youth Matters

By Nadia Jamil

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South African Freedom Day takes place on April 27. The date commemorates the country’s first post-apartheid national election in 1994.

The following artists highlight the changing face of South Africa and the emergence of a creative elite who are free to question society’s ills without fear of reproach.

Omar Badsha is a self-taught artist and photographer from Durban. Badsha played an active role in the South African liberation struggle as a cultural and political activist. His involvement began in the early sixties while still in high school.

He participated in all the major anti-apartheid campaigns in Natal and the Western Cape at the time, recording all that he experienced on camera. In the late 70s and the 80s he went on to become one of the most influential documentary photographers.

His photographic work has received worldwide acclaim and he is deemed to be one of the pioneers of Resistance Art. His work depicted the struggle of Black South Africans in their journey toward liberation from the 1960s to the mid-eighties, conveying a viewpoint which had previously not been given precedence. His photographs were ahead of their time in their depiction of the victim as worthy of documentation and no longer being voiceless.

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Antjie Kroger

Antjie Krog is a poet, academic and writer. She was born into an Afrikaner family in Kroonstad, Orange Free State. In 1970, at the height of the apartheid regime, she wrote a poem which stated her desire for an end to the current oppressive regime and the beginning of unity between the races. This wish was met with great hostility, leaving her to be regarded as a revolutionary and heretic. She went on to publish two books of poetry by the time she was twenty. After obtaining a teaching diploma, she taught at a segregated college, training black South Africans to become teachers.

To date, she has written twelve volumes of poetry in Afrikaans.Many of her poems have been translated into English, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish, Swedish, Serbian and Arabic.

In 1995, she was asked by Nelson Mandela to translate his autobiography ‘A Long Walk to Freedom’ into Afrikaans and received an award from the Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture in 2000.

“Give me a land where black and white hand in hand, Can bring peace and love to my beautiful land...”

Asha Zero

Asha Zero is a contemporary artist from Johannesburg working in paint and collage. Asha is a pseudonym which alludes to a desire to place his work and its message before the personality of the artist. His work is abstract and influenced by the French wave of troupe l’oeil. His collages are expressed through the visual language of abstract expressionism. Through the use of found images he juxtaposes fragmented facial features, using them to disturb our expectations of acceptability and question our need and reliance on the pleasure principle. Through this interplay, he highlights the reality of a fragmented identity borne of a contemporary society suffering from information overload. His images are unashamedly confusing, a simul-taneous assault on the emotions and the intellect, which reflects a genuine feeling of being inundated which we can all relate to.

Hasan & Hussein

Hasan and Hussein Essop are identical twins from Cape Town. They studied Fine Art at Cape Town University and have been working as artists collectively since 2006. Through the use of photography their work explores ideas around faith, commonality and modernity. Their work is deeply influenced by their Islamic upbringing and brings a unique context to the western art world.

Posing in their own pictures, they recreate surreal images which question the way we bring a sense of value into our daily lives; values held around identity and status. Their work is often based on a personal study of issues around young Muslim male identity and how it responds to living in a secular environment.

Each photograph is digitally manipulated to explore diverse themes only using themselves as the subject and often in multiples. The photographic exposure of each image is extended so that they can place themselves strategically within the frame, sometimes repeatedly.

Omar Badsha

ARTS Art editor Moriam Grillo

Moriam Grillo

is a visual artist, broadcaster, author and part time art teacher. She holds Bachelor degrees in Photography & Film and Ceramics. Her current work involves two public Islamic commissions.

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As a leading exponent of calligraphy, Hamid Ajami is the founder of an innovative new style of Persian calligraphy entitled ‘Moala’.

Hamid Ajami was born in Tehran 1962 into a traditional Iranian family. Ajami first practiced calligraphy at the tender age of fifteen. His late father, a respected poet and calligra-pher, was his first instructor. His initial lessons familiarised him with the basic principles and regulations of classical calligraphy. He later studied for four years under the super-vision of the master calligrapher Keykhosro Khoroosh and there he learned the most important principles of writing the Arabic script. His favourite style of calligraphy was Nasta’ligh Script for which he attained a distinction in his field. After joining the Calligraphy Association of Iran, he went on to study under the tutelage of the great master, Gholam-Hossein Amirkhani, enduring another eight years of training before he was considered to have completed his learning and to have mastered his craft.

He was awarded the Degree of Excellence by the Calligraphy Association and went on to obtain an honorary PHD from the Academy of Art in Iran for pioneering an entirely new style in calligraphy, which he entitled Moala (literally referring to the term: ‘The Exalted’). The creation of a new graphic script was an innovation that had not occurred in approximately 200 years.

Moala is unrivalled amongst other Persian and calligraphy scripts both in style and shape and has inspired the artist’s latest collection of mixed media paintings. In 2002, Hamid Ajami, who now resides and works in Tehran, held his first international solo exhibition of Contemporary Iranian Calligraphy at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. He has also exhibited in the Philippines, Germany, and Lebanon and taken part in over thirty other international and national group exhibitions.

His work is a fascinating reflection of Persian culture fused with inspiration from traditional geometry and contemporary Islamic art. His use of colour is subtle yet bold as is his use of varying colours to tone the formed letters. His approach is innovative in the way that form and meaning are turned into abstract expressionism.

Rather than meaning being found in deciphered text, Ajami presents an invitation to understand his intent through colour and context.

Ajami is currently managing director of the Farda Culture and Art Institute in Iran.

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HeritageVakil Mosque, Shiraz Iran

Built: 1770

Architect: Karima Khan, founder of the Zand Dynasty

The main prayer hall is 8,660 square metres. Its night prayer hall (Shabestan), with an area of approximately 2,700 square metres, contains 48 monolithic pillars carved in spirals, each with a capital of acanthus leaves. The minbar in this hall is cut from a solid piece of green marble with a flight of 14 steps and is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the Zand period. The exuberant floral decorative tiles largely date from the Qajar period.

The Place to BE Shakespeare’s Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe theatre and pays homage to the life and work of William Shakespeare. His plays and sonnets are taught in school curriculums, as well as influencing creativity in film, theatre and literature.

The original Globe theatre was built in 1599. It burnt down in the Fire of London in 1613 and was rebuilt in 1614 before it, in turn, was closed by the Puritans in 1644. The current Globe theatre was built in 1995 just 750 feet from its original site and remains a hub for enthusiasts and newcomers alike. From April 23, the anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Globe theatre will be hosting a series of his plays concurrently.

Tickets are available for as little as £5 for each performance. Shakespeare’s Globe, 21 New Globe Walk, Southwark, London.

Masterpiece Yusuf Grillo is a respected Nigerian artist whose paintings have been influenced by contemporary themes such as cubism and are characterised by the consistent use of the colour blue.

One of his works entitled ‘Flight’, depicts the biblical account of the Prophet Jesus(a) as a young child. It is refreshing to see

a mise en scène of traditional African construct represented in a way that is universal in its visual language.

The iconic image in western art of the ‘Madonna and child’ has been translated across many art forms and using diverse media. Grillo has taken this narrative and injected a modern context. Instead of a donkey we have a bicycle and, instead of favouring another origin, we are reminded of Africa. Joseph’s role as carpenter is symbolised here by the presence of a tool box and saw. Blessed with the task of caring for Mary and her infant child, his steely expression alludes to the seriousness of the job at hand and his intention to do it well. All eyes fall on the child.

Shrouded in a halo of green, the dominant colour of the Nigerian flag, all three subjects are embraced within the arms of love, one towards the other, a metaphor perhaps for the unity of love or the instruction to ‘love thy brother as thyself’.

Each layering of embrace appears to reflect a deeper level of purity. Joseph, wearing a mantle of blue, acts out a Divine instruction as protector and guide. Mary has a halo of verdant green, representing the fertile purity of her being and her spir-itual prowess. Jesus[a], has a halo of blue representing a more heavenly connection which is beyond this world. Draped in white, he represents the nucleus of this image and the eternal message he was born to share.

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In The Spotlight

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I am mud

The quintessence of dust

Humble grit, non-descript

Yet within my grime lies

A ray of His pure Light

Colourless, raceless, non-finite

In spirit, I am unbound

By cliques, prejudice

Power, hierarchies

Unhardened and undefined

Soft and pure, love and light

Mercy, grace, truth personified

Earthly body, spirit divine

Transcending pettiness, selfishness

With compassion, liberal heart and mind

Until I descend into pretence

Rigidities, contempt, difference

Sham pride, divides, defines

What a fool am I!

Consumed by spite and exclusivity

Detaching and defaming, hating and blaming

Snuffing my humanity, soiling my dignity

Muck and filth personified

Dirt or divine, the choice is mine

Ignore the agony, injustice

A spiritless, clay marionette

Or with iron will, act, reject

Am I the flicker of active, burning love?

As the darkness spreads

Or merely cold cynicism, passive at best?

Caring only for myself and mine

While communities shatter, ignorance reigns

Deaf, dumb, blind

I am light extinguished

Dead earth, buried alive

By Fatema Valji

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‘Tonight the cosmos has forever lost its centre but, come the light, it will have found countless centres!’ Thus exults the scientist-hero in Bertold Brecht’s didactic play, Life of Galileo. Indeed, after pointing his telescope to the night sky, he realised that our galaxy consists of myriad separate stars. Observing phenomena like the four moons of Jupiter, Galileo was certain he had proved the truth of Copernicus’ heliocentric theory. Contrary to the almost universally-held geocentric view, the earth was not the centre of the universe, with the sun and the planets revolving around it. Galileo had caused what Thomas Kuhn later termed a ‘paradigm shift’. A key revolution in science, a fundamental change in world outlook, a new way of looking at the physical universe and at man’s place in it. Wow! As April 12th is the anniversary of Galileo’s subsequent misfortunes, it is an opportune time to recall his story.

Galileo was a universal genius. Following the path prepared by astronomers like Copernicus, Brahe and Kepler - and looking forward to Newton - Galileo discovered the role of acceleration in dynamics, the law of falling bodies, investigated projectiles - as Bertrand Russell observes, ‘a subject of impor-tance to his employer, the Duke of Tuscany’ - demonstrated the existence of the sun spots and passionately came

to embrace the heliocentric model of the solar system. It had been antici-pated by the ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos and emphasised by Muhammad al-Baqir, the fifth Shi’i Imam in the 8th century, but under the crushing influence of Aristotle,

Ptolemy of Alexandria’s geocentric views had won the day.

Had there been at the time a Nobel Prize, Galileo would certainly have won it. Instead he found himself under attack. Many theologians, but also some fellow astronomers and mathemati-cians, accused him of contradicting Aristotle, common sense and the Bible. How could anyone dare disagree with the Greek philosopher, that fountain-

head of all knowledge? He had placed the earth at the heart of the universe and surely Aristotle knew best. Moreover, anyone who isn’t blind can perceive that it is the sun that moves while

the earth stands still. And doesn’t the tenth chapter of the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament say that Joshua stopped the sun? What a cheek, what nonsense, what a foul heresy to believe otherwise! Galileo mocked his critics, men so obtuse that they even refused to look through his telescope and believe

the evidence of their own

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eyes! He was right but made some bitter enemies. The dogmatists lobbied the Church to condemn him twice. First in 1616, when he was forbidden to teach his views and finally in 1633. At his infamous trial the inquisitors threat-ened him with torture – he was shown the dreaded instruments and then gave in, promising to abjure and detest the theory that the earth moves around the sun. ‘And yet it moves’. Legend has that Galileo muttered these words under his breath, as he signed his recantation. The great scientist spent the rest of his life under civilised house arrest.

Freethinkers, freemasons, secularists and other foes of the Catholic Church have gleefully made much capital out of Galileo’s misfortunes. In fact Galileo was a devout believer. As a boy, he had even considered becoming a contempla-tive monk at the famous Vallombrosa monastery. He never set himself against Catholic doctrine. His argument was chiefly with those who slavishly followed Aristotle’s antiquated and abstract doctrines, instead of trusting in the empirical, scientific method, based on observation and experiment. As to the Bible, Galileo believed, as indeed many churchmen did, that the literal meaning of a text is not the only guide to its true sense.

Bertrand Russell fascinatingly points out how some normative idea of sacred numerology might have contributed to the muddle. There were supposed to be, in Ptolemy’s system, seven heavenly bodies, the five planets plus the moon

and the sun. Now, seven was a

special number. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, when the Lord rested after creation, and you have also the seven-branched candlestick and the seven churches of Asia in the book of Revelation. However, if you add the four moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo’s telescope you get eleven heavenly bodies and the number eleven is sadly devoid of

mystical qualities.

Not all the church dignitaries and theologians sought to persecute Galileo. (Indeed, the Polish Catholic Copernicus, working a century before, never suffered for the same views.) Back then the Church was more tolerant and relaxed. Pope Urban VIII, under whom Galileo was tried, was himself a man of science and not at all personally inim-ical to the great astronomer. He was however under pressure from hostile cardinals and heresy-hunters. He feared being accused of being soft on heresy so he did not try to save Galileo from the Inquisition. It just shows the fallacy of believing a Pope is necessarily an absolute ruler.

Cardinal Bellarmino, a sharp Jesuit theologian (an ancestor of mine, actu-ally), involved in the first trial, also advised Galileo to be prudent and so to hold the heliocentric theory only as a mathematical hypothesis and not as an absolute certainty. For that reason

the philosopher of

science Karl Popper has called Bellarmino a forerunner of scientific epis-

temology. Because a genuine scientific method crucially consists in the putting forward and testing of hypotheses.

In 2000 Pope John Paul II officially apologised for

the grievous error the Church had committed 377 years earlier with the trial of Galileo. ‘The mistake of the theologians involved in Galileo’s trial was to confuse physical science and the literal sense of Holy Scripture.’ That was the gist of the papal apology. Well, better late than never, you might say.

The Playwright Bertold Brecht witnessed the horrors of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. He then rewrote some scenes of ‘The Life of Galileo’. Awareness of the implications of scientific discoveries, conquests could never be the same, he felt. I agree with him. Crimes and intolerance can have many faces... •

Revd Frank Julian Gelli is an Anglican priest work-ing on religious dialogue. He is a cultural critic and a religious controversialist on TV and Radio. His last book is: “Julius Evola: the Sufi of Rome’. Available on Amazon Kindle.

Galileo never set himself against Catholic doctrine nevertheless Freethinkers, freemasons, secularists

and other foes of the Catholic Church have gleefully made much capital out of Galileo’s misfortunes.

As to the Bible, Galileo believed, as indeed many churchmen did, that the literal meaning of a text is

not the only guide to its true sense.

Revd Frank Gelli explains how Galileo, a devout believer, was tried by the very same Church he once considered to serve

Opinions

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In his book “The founding myths of Israeli Politics” Roger Garaudy quotes Rabbi Cohen in his book, Talmud: “The inhabitants of the Earth are of two kinds: Israel and other

nations…Israel is the chosen one…”

This proclamation expresses a fundamental conviction that lies at the core of Israeli identity, namely that the Israeli nation is the chosen one and that it is so against all others.

We can ask, chosen for what, and offer some reasonable guesses because millions of people from an important region of the world - namely, a Middle-East that has been in turmoil for centuries and always with the same essential causes - have to conduct their daily lives amid a constant insecurity that threatens their existence. This situation is not becoming of a peaceful world

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that human power and imagination is capable of conceiving and realising. We can see how, instead, conceiving of oneself as having the right to deny others their lives and livelihoods is conducive to war and destruction. We do not need to be experts in any field to understand the pain of parents whose children just perished before their eyes or the pain of children who have become orphans. These are regular, miserable occurrences in Palestine and have been for decades. All we need in order to understand them is to be human.

Further, this humble human being also has analytical powers that can subject experience to scrutiny. S/he can understand that the very act of creating Others - notionally opposing characters against whom we can view our own identities - is largely responsible for the status quo in the Middle-East, at least since 1897 when the first Zionist congress took place.

Thus, I would venture that the Zionist conception of an Other, as an essential part of an ideology that was delineated by Edward Said in his seminal book, Orientalism (Said 1987) (Islam Today, December 2012:26-7), is aided by the corresponding images of the Other prevalent in the field of Oriental Studies. Orientalism and Zionism are both in the business of creating an Other against which to contrast themselves.

Here, we are not talking about the natural, acceptable, and respectable differences that distinguish various peoples. What Rabbi Cohen is saying is that Israel is superior to all others; this is a black and white, rigid, and immov-able conviction. As such, it is in need of an inferior Other. Here Orientalism comes into its own but this time in the guise of, and even perhaps in conjunc-tion with, Zionism.

Orientalism and Zionism are both dependant on the idea of an Other. Without this notion, neither of them would have a contrasting image. Thus, a sizable part of their efforts is dedicated to the creation of an Other in order to maintain the rest of their existence. The image of this Other is

the lifeblood of both and so they go a long way to creating it as their own contrasting image. If this means that they have to resort to creating myths, so be it. They have all the necessary means and mechanisms in place to do so; that is, through their systems of education and academia and propagation by their own media. This system creates its own legislature, policies (social, economic, foreign, cultural, etc.), judiciary - in short, it underlies the whole machinery of the state.

There are many fabricated myths in Zionist ideology, for example, the myth of God’s promise that the Israelites would have a homeland in Palestine, or the myth of Israelites being the chosen race, or the myth of a land without a people for a people without a land, etc. So, if the Zionist ideology requires a mythical history in order to justify itself, i.e. the history of a wandering people through millennia who are promised their own homeland, then a whole department of Jewish history, as distinct from general history, is dedicated to creating it. Shlomo Sand (a professor of general history in Tel Aviv who has dared to question the authenticity of Jewish history as propagated by Zionism), in his “The Invention of the Jewish people” (Sand 2009), sketches a fascinating and believable picture of this mythologising.

Orientalism is and does the same kind of thing as Zionism. It creates myths about the Other that are useful to the presentation of an Orientalist perspec-tive. However, it does so without so much reliance on religion, whereas Zionism appeals directly and mislead-ingly to religion. Instead, Orientalism’s pretentions lie in its appeal to scientific discovery and the immediate knowl-edge that it purports to follow. All the works of those academics sympathetic to Zionism (such as Bernard Lewis), belong to this latter, so-called scientific category.

Zionism and Orientalism mutually support one another. Orientalism justifies the Zionist ideology and Zionism provides an active justification for Orientalism.

So it was with a mythologising of the

Jewish history that Zionism, as distinct from any religious movement, was born in 1897. However, this distinction was and is hidden behind Judaism as an Abrahamic religion. In other words, having fabricated a particular history for the Jewish people, Zionism in 1897 began to ask all the Jewish people of the world to support a claim for a Jewish homeland for the people who had been wandering, country-less, around the world for thousands of years. It did and does this by appealing to the religious beliefs of the Jewish people. What was created was a justification of history by religion and religion by history.

Not many people are aware that Theodore Herzel (an Eastern European known as the father of political Zionism) had no particular aspirations for the Jewish homeland to be in Palestine. He was negotiating with the British government for this homeland to be in East Africa where the British had strong control. However, other fathers of political Zionism, such as Chiam Weizmann, Ahad Haam, Jabotinski, Joseph Trumpeldor, David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, and Nahum Sokolow would not settle for anything less than Palestine. Thus, the mythological beginnings of this political movement in 1897 led to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 that promised Palestine to the Zionist cause.

It is also interesting to note that at this time four ministries of the Ottoman Government were presided over by Zionists (A. Nuweihid, 2003). Therefore, Arabs in general, and Palestinians in particular, became the ‘Other’ that both the British Government and the Zionist movement needed in the Middle East. Hence, from the perspective of Westerners and Israelis, Arabs and Middle Easterners in general defined the formers’ opposite image. With the Balfour Declaration, Britain gave away land that it did not own to people that had created a mythical ownership over it twenty years earlier. No one had asked Palestinians for their opinions.

By the end of World War I, in 1918, an international Zionist political project to bring all the Jewish people of the world to their promised homeland (Palestine)

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was well under way (regardless of the fact that many Jews preferred living in their chosen non-Jewish communities as they still do today).

The interwar years were spent consolidating this position by infiltrating Palestine in all manner of conduct, open and (especially) hidden. The overt purchasing of land in Palestine and the covert smuggling of weapons into that land are two good examples of this.

After the Second World War, fifty-one years after its first congress in Switzer-land, the Zionist movement was in a position to wage a bloody war in Pales-tine against, first, the British (who gave them that land) in order to oust the British forces, and then the Palestinians and Arabs which gave rise to the plight of Palestinian refugees, labelled thus even if they chose to remain in their homeland under Israeli occupation. Thus, in 1948, the State of Israel was born and, to the present day, continues to usurp Palestinian land. According to its self-created mythology, Zionism aims to expand Israel to include all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates. When Zionists refer to “Eretz Israel”

it is this geography they are talking about (Sand 2008). This Ideology is one reason why Yitzhak Rabin was assas-sinated by Zionist fundamentalists. He was prepared to compromise on “Eretz Israel”.

The rest is well documented. Today, 116 years after the first Zionist congress and almost a century after the Balfour Declaration, we have a Middle-East divided between, on the one hand, Western Orientalism/Zionist Israel and, on the other hand, a newly awakened population that is asking for its legiti-mate and long overdue rights. •

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When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the whole world seemed to be optimistic about his rise to power. After eight years of gung-ho, and gunboat, diplomacy by George W Bush, Obama’s rhetoric of Audacity of Hope created a buzz among the masses tired of the relentless warmongering of the Bush era.

Obama’s rhetoric of peace was so impressive that within months of his inauguration, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Five years later, world opinion on Obama’s legacy is fast changing. Obama is no longer the man of peace that he portrayed himself to be, and if the Nobel Peace Prize committee had any sense they would demand back their prize or would strip him of that title.

To be fair, the general direction of Obama’s foreign policy is less bellig-erent than that of his predecessor. For instance, Obama has enough independ-ence to choose an appointee who is less intimidated by the pro-Israeli lobby, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC. Someone like Chuck Hagel, his new Defence Secretary, who supposedly called Israel ‘an Apartheid state’ in 2010, would never have been nominated by the likes of Bush.

Global OutrageAll over the world, peace activists are outraged by the killing of civilians with each fresh CIA-orchestrated drone strike. And with every strike the ‘peace credentials’ of Barack Obama is further questioned.

But the drone attacks did not begin with Obama. They were part of Bush’s arsenal for his ‘War on Terror’. The first drone strike took place in June 2004 in Pakistan as Nek Mohammad, a local Taleban commander was having his dinner along with his militia members on a hot summer night. Missiles fired at him from an unmanned Predator drone blasted a deep crater where he sat. Nek Mohammad and four militia members were killed instantly. Often missed out from the reports on this attack was that there were two boys, aged 10 and 16, who were also killed in that attack.

The missing of these two innocent bystanders in the first U.S. drone strike reports is emblematic of how the voice-less civilians have been systematically airbrushed out of these tragic events. It is as if the civilian victims of these attacks do not even count.

According to the Brookings Institution, for every combatant killed by a drone

strike, ‘10 or so civilians also died’. Experts maintain that a more realistic estimate would point to a ratio of 15 civilians to every combatant.

A Drone Prone Obama But compared to Bush, Obama seems to have had much more fondness for these unmanned aerial vehicles that rain missiles and ammunition down on civilians and combatants alike. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, during Obama’s presidency ‘drone strike rates have risen even higher, as once-rare ‘targeted killings’ have become commonplace. The CIA strikes have risen from one a year to an average of one every four days, almost always in the tribal border regions of North and South Waziristan [in Paki-stan].’ Elsewhere Obama’s drones have been firing on targets in Yemen and Somalia as well. Who knows where is next; perhaps the Muslims in Mali and other West African nations will also get a dose of drone warfare.

After sweet talking the Muslims in Cairo in the early days of his presidency, Obama is now talking to the Muslim world with the language of the military industrial complex, the language of missiles.

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Obama at least can be credited with sticking to his promise of change: From a saviour, or a messiah of the modern age, to a missile lover, that is quite a change. Just like Gregor Samsa, Kafka’s character in Metamorphosis, who wakes up one morning to see himself transformed into a cockroach, Barack Obama’s metamorphosis has turned him from an anti-war candidate for the White House, to a pro-war president. •

* Source: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Reza Murshid is a political analyst and a

freelance writer.

U.S. Drone War Casualty Estimates*

CIA Drone Strikes in Pakistan 2004–2013

Total US strikes: 364

Obama strikes: 312

Total reported killed: 2,534-3,573

Civilians reported killed: 411-884

Children reported killed: 168-197

Total reported injured: 1,172-1,463

US Covert Action in Yemen 2002–2013

Confirmed US drone strikes: 43-53

Total reported killed: 228-325Civil-ians reported killed: 12-45

Children reported killed: 2

Reported injured: 62-144

Possible extra US drone strikes: 77-93

Total reported killed: 277-426




All other US covert operations: 12-76





US Covert Action in Somalia 2007–2013

US drone strikes: 3-9





All other US covert operations: 7-14





Politics

Despite the peace rhetoric in his rise to the presidency, Obama has now emerged as a staunch advocate of drone attacks which have killed hundreds of innocent children and civilians,

says Reza Murshid

32 33

Book review

Do immigrants threaten the West

By Mohsen Biparva

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A few months after the Srebrenica massacre, Gisele Littman, a self educated Egyptian-born, Swiss-English writer, also known as Bat Ye’or (Hebrew for ‘daughter of the Nile’) delivered a speech to a group linked to Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb warlord. She championed the argument made by Serb radicals that ‘the Muslims of Bosnia and Kosovo have a centuries-old plot to take over Europe’ and that ‘the recent crisis in Yugoslavia offered a new chance [for the plot].’

Littman is among many other popular writers, journalists and bloggers to advocate the idea dubbed ‘Muslim-tide’. It goes like this: ‘Muslim immigrants and their children are not like earlier immigrants. They are reproducing at unusually rapid rates, far higher than those of exhausted Western populations, and at some point soon - perhaps by middle of the century - Muslims will become a majority in Europe and North America. This is a danger because unlike other immigrants, they are loyal to Islam, not to their societies.’ It says that Muslims are plotting a “stealth takeover” mainly through their high birth rate. The once reputable journalist Oriana Fallaci in her Italian bestseller The Rage and the Pride says: ‘son’s of God … they multiply like rats.’

Saunders shows that how Bat Ye’or popularised the idea that Bosnia’s Muslim population was a threat to Europe, an enemy from within, and the Serb ethnic cleansing was merely a ‘Serbian resistance movement’ against ‘the gradual Muslim penetration of Europe.’ He also shows how the idea of Muslim-tide first advocated by angry activists and bloggers had become mainstream by 2011, the year that Anders Breivic killed more than 70 people, some as young as 14, in cold blood. Breivic accused those individuals for being ‘category A and B traitors’ in his 1518 page document released on the internet before the massacre. In Breivic’s view they were ‘supporters of the anti-European hate ideology known as multiculturalism, an ideology that facilitates Islamisation and Islamic demographic warfare.’

Saunders traces the use of ‘Eurabia’, a widely used term in Breivic’s argument, meaning colonisation of Europe by Muslims and Arabs, to its inventor Bat Ye’or and her influential book Eurabia: the Euro-Arab Axis. Among those influenced by her is Mark Steyn, a Canadian blogger who believes that

by 2025 the EU’s population will be 40 percent Muslim and ‘Europe will be semi-Islamic in its politico-cultural character within a generation.’

The book also examines the success of what it calls anti Eurabia parties in Europe. It starts from Dutch politician Geert Wilders and his anti-Muslim Party for Freedom (PVV), who believe that Islam is not a religion but a political ideology similar to communism and fascism. Later in the book we discover how Wilder’s argument resonates with Adolf Hitler’s who also believed that Judaism was not a religion but a political ideology of conquest, yet ironically Wilders compares the Qur’an with Hitler’s Mein Kampf and calls for its ban.

After the first chapter on the genealogy and definition of the concept of Muslim-tide and its advocates, Saunders tries to examine all Muslim-tide claims using actual facts and figures. First there are demographic claims mainly arguing that Muslims will become the majority in the near future. Then there is the narrative of the clash of civilisations, that Islam and the West are two homogeneous and inherently opposite entities engaged in perpetual war until one side wins and eliminates the other. Another claim is that the secular West is in decline and soon Muslim radicals will win. The next claim is that Muslim immigrants are guided by a religion that they regard as more of an ideology than a spiritual faith.

There are other claims such as Muslims do not want to integrate, they are always angry at the society around them, that

they are firstly loyal to Islam and then to their country, and that they want to set up sharia law courts, etc. Addressing the firstly set of claims, Saunders finds that in 1950 there were fewer than 300,000 Muslims in the 27 countries that later made up the European Union. Today there are between 15 to 20 million, between 3% to 4% of the population. He refers to several recent demographic studies, the largest and most comprehensive of which was done by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre in 2011 that shows that if the current immigration level and birth rates are sustained, then by 2030 the Muslim population of Europe will be 29.8 million or 7.1% of the population. This is far less than the 40% claimed by Muslim-tide writers and activists. In America the Muslim population is projected to increase from 2.6 million in 2010

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to 6.2 million in 2030, around 1.7% of the population.

The book also shows that the popular belief that Muslims tend to have big families is not entirely true. First of all it shows that Muslims in Muslim majority countries do not tend to have large families and more importantly Islam or being religious is not in itself the motivation for a high birth rate. The author gives the example of Iran which under the Islamic Republic reduced its population from 7 children per family in the 1980s to 1.7 children by 2010 - a lower rate than both Britain and France. Even President Ahmadinejad’s campaign in 2007 to encourage Iranians to have more than 2 children per family had no effect: the birth rate kept falling.

This is also true in many other Muslim countries: in Lebanon it is 1.86, in Turkey 2.15, in Tunisia 2.04 and in the United Arab Emirates it is 1.9 children per family. Ironically contrary to Serb militants’ claims, Bosnian Muslims have one of the lowest fertility rates in the world with 1.23 children per family. Saunders concludes that ‘Muslim countries are undergoing one of the fastest rates of fertility decline in history.’

After examining the main arguments of the Muslim-tide genre literature Saunders provides historical examples of the previous waves of immigration to Western Europe and North America. He shows that Roman Catholics from South and East Europe as well as Jews from East Europe have faced almost similar myths and prejudices from their host societies.

For the beginning he refers to the ‘Catholic tide’ as it was known in the United States in the first half of the previous century. Americans were alarmed by what was called ‘the flood of Roman Catholic immigrants’ who usually came from countries that were almost all ‘authoritarian, religiously fundamentalist and opposed to the rights of women and the practice of birth control.’ Catholicism was ‘at root an undemocratic system of alien control’, and ‘fast-reproducing Catholic families were out-breeding non-Catholic elements’ of the society. According to one commentator in the 1950s ‘Catholic authoritarianism might quash the scientific spirit, produce adults incapable of psychological autonomy and have a disastrous effect on national unity because of the growing number of children enrolled in Catholic schools.’ Catholics were associated with fascism, terrorism and were accused of being the fifth column.

This was also the case for Jews immigrating to England and the United States. Jews were widely associated with violence and political extremism. The Russian Revolution in 1917 and the Bolshevik movements in Europe were characterised as Jewish-led events and the term ‘Judeo-Bolshevism’ was

coined. One official government report of the United States in 1911 claimed that 67 percent of Polish Jewish children were ‘retarded’. Popular authors predicted that thanks to their high fertility rate, Jews would soon outnumber native-born Americans.

As Saunders observes, ‘the boundaries of “our civilisation” as defined by English-speaking people, kept changing. First it was limited to people from the British Isles (minus Ireland), then to North-western Europe (after Germans and Scandinavians were accepted in the late nineteenth century); only in the late twentieth century was “our civilisation” allowed to encompass all of Western Europe.’ In 1922, the scholar John Palmer Gavit recognised the pattern according to Saunders: ‘each phase of immigration [to North America] has been “the new immigra-tion” at its time; each has been viewed with alarm; each has been described as certain to deteriorate the physical quality of our people and destroy the standards of living and citizen-ship.” Nearly a century later Gavit’s observation is still true. •

He was the champion of the fight against a unipolar world in which the United States and its European allies would love to reign supreme. He was an icon for all those who want a more just, equitable world order.

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The news came over the wires: Venezuela’s El Comandante Hugo Chavez had died. America’s Public Enemy

Number One in Latin America is no more, and the right-wing Fox News commentators could not hide their glee for the passing of their enemy

But their joy is surely double-edged. After seeing millions of Venezuelans take to the streets to show their

respects to the late revolutionary leader, the same commentators must be willing Chavez back to life so that his popularity remains hidden from the outside world. .As Chavez lay in a casket, in full military regalia, two lines of Venezuelans walked past the simple wooden coffin with a Venezuelan flag draped over its lower half. The queues of people hoping to bid farewell to the deceased president extended for several miles.

Some stood for more than ten hours to get a last glimpse of the man who not only revolutionised politics and economics in Venezuela but also ushered in a new era in Latin American politics. From February 1992 when he burst onto the Venezuelan scene with an unsuccessful coup d’état and then with a successful bid for the presidency of the oil rich nation later in the 1990’s, Chavez charted new paths for his nation and led to the most cataclysmic change in Latin American politics in recent memory. It was his rise to power that brought a succession of anti-American politicians to power in the continent which Washington has always considered its backyard.

After Chavez, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva was elected in Brazil in October 2002, followed by Lucio Gutiérrez in Ecuador in January 2003. Néstor Kirchner came to power in Argentina in May 2003. He was followed by Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay in October 2004. This domino effect continued with the rise of Evo Morales in Bolivia in December 2005, Rafael Correa in Ecuador in November 2006, and then Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, also in November 2006. Hardly any of these leaders can be described as Washington’s chums.Chavez was lucky that his rise to

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power coincided

with the so-called War on Terror in

the aftermath of the 11th of September attacks

against the USA. The United States appeared to be too preoccupied with its wars in the distant lands of Iraq and Afghanistan to pay sufficient attention to its own ‘backyard’. Had he come to power in the sixties or seventies, his movement would have been brutally suppressed either by direct U.S. intervention or through U.S. lackeys.This is not to say that the United States left Chavez alone. On the same day that Chavez died it was revealed that two U.S. diplomats stationed in Caracas had been declared persona non grata and ordered to pack their bags on suspicion that they were plotting against Venezuela. Diplomatic ties between the two countries are at their lowest. The U.S. Embassy in Caracas has been without an ambassador since 2010 when Chavez rejected the U.S. appointee, which led Washington to revoke the credentials of Venezuela’s ambassador.The U.S. Civil Rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who ran for president

twice in the 1980s, was the most high profile American to attend the

Chavez funeral. Standing close to the coffin, Jackson delivered a short message to

the huge gathering of hundreds of world leaders, most notably the Latin American heads of state. The presence of so many Latin American leaders and the absence

of a high profile American statesman were emblematic of the failure of a century of American endeavour to assert its presence in Latin America despite repeated Washington-sponsored coups. It was also symbolic of the failure of neo-liberal economic policies, mostly cooked up in the economics departments in major American universities and

think tanks, that have attempted to change the economic systems in Latin America and replace them with a

laissez-faire capitalism that does not even attempt to fight poverty. (Before Chavez came to power, 71 per cent of Venezuelans lived a life of poverty. By 2010 this figure had plummeted to 21%.)No man is without his faults. Chavez surely had his and this piece is by no means an attempt to glorify him. The man is now with his Maker and one can only pray for him. One certainly hopes that soon his body is put to rest and not embalmed like other historical leaders. He certainly does not deserve to

be mentioned in the same breath as Lenin, Stalin, Mao or Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.A balanced approach is needed toward Chavez and his legacy. The Western media has attempted to demonise Chavez as a ‘socialist clown’ but he was certainly a skilful operator in the political milieu of his country and also on the world stage. He entered strategic alliances with Russia and China. He was also extremely active in establishing strong ties with significant Global South actors such as Iran. He was the champion of the fight against a unipolar world in which the United States and its European allies would love to reign supreme. He was an icon for all those who want a more just, equitable world order.Chavez died after battling cancer for almost two years. In the wake of his death, some have suggested that there should be an inquest into how he contracted the illness, considering that a number of other anti-American world leaders were struck down by cancer at around the same time. The accusations warrant a prompt investigation into the matter so that it too can be laid to rest. •

Reza Murshid is a political analyst and a

freelance writer.

Feature

Despite western media attempts to demonise Chavez, he remains an icon for all those who want a more just, equitable world order says Reza Murshid

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In the last twenty years global awareness of Islamic finance has increased significantly. Even though financial markets across the world are currently experiencing a very difficult downturn, Islamic financial institutions have shown a reasonable degree of resilience. In addition, Islamic finance and banking are gaining traction even in non-Muslim countries, with the United Kingdom being at the forefront of its remarkable growth. As is commonly known Islamic finance has a zero tolerance towards interest (riba), trading with debts, and gambling. All Islamic financial products must be structured to avoid these elements without any compromise. In order to do that, Islamic finance offers products that prohibit money from generating money (interest), or making profit by excessive speculation (gambling), or selling-buying debt (commonly known as derivatives). Instead Islamic finance relies and encourages real and actual investments based on real assets, such as buildings, machinery, agriculture, manufacturing, and any other productive projects. Therefore one of the key elements here is that banks or financiers do not play the role of moneylenders but that of a partner by establishing an actual business partnership

with their customers. The two main Islamic business partnerships include Musharakah (the joint venture partnership) and Mudarabah (the entrepreneurial partnership). Both models exclusively rely on the rule of sharing profits and losses whereby the financier and client both enjoy the benefits of any profit and the risks of bearing a loss. It is patently clear that Islamic finance can provide a solution for the global banking crisis. If the banks started to act as business partners and provided cash that could be injected into the system for real projects

and businesses, this would certainly stimulate the economic cycle and re-establish public and investors’ confidence. This would happen by bringing more individuals and small investors on board (depositors and savers) instead of keeping the cash circulating within a limited circle of institutions and individuals. If the banks were to apply Islamic financial techniques, they would look for new

investment opportunities to use the cash available instead of simply investing it where it generates the best rate of interest. This means that the money could be used to establish or expand real investments that rely on real productivity which in turn would be supported by real assets. Instead of relying on interest terms, the government and corporations could release Islamic Bonds (Sukuk) to fund infrastructure development (railways, airports, electricity, and similar projects). As Sukuk gives an opportunity for the bond-holders to be part of a productive project by having an actual stake in its ownership, this would encourage more individuals and small investors to fund large scale public projects. Islamic financial instruments would attract more cash from the people, who are interested in maximising their income, establishing new businesses or expanding existing ones. In addition, this would increase the demand for employees and have a positive effect on employment rates.Based on the abovementioned, the UK market could easily attract significant numbers of investors from the Middle East where high liquidity is available. The UK would be an attractive market for many Muslim investors as British financial regulations already authorise some Islamic products. The British economy is currently suffering

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from a lack of

investment, and the solution lies in encouraging more people to work together to help regain investors’ confidence. The hit TV programme, Dragons’ Den, is a good example of how Islamic finance can work by combining money and talent (Mudarabah), or expanding and bringing investors together in the business (Musharakah). We can argue that there are some successful Islamic financial examples in the UK. The proof of this success is the $18billion (£12bn) size of the assets of Britain’s Islamic banks which is in fact much bigger than those of some states where Islam is the main religion, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Egypt, according to a 2009 article in the Daily Telegraph . In

addition, it was reported

that there are 55 colleges and professional institutions delivering courses in Islamic finance in Britain which makes the British market bigger than anywhere else in the world. Different British banks offer Islamic financial products with five “fully Sharia-compliant”, and another 17 top institutions including Barclays, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group have established Islamic financial windows or subsidiary firms for Muslim clients. In this case the question of familiarity would be invalid, but the real question is whether the conventional banking system would be interested in changing its interest based products into real business models. •

Nehad Khanfar

is a Lecturer in Islamic Finance and Economics.

Nehad Khanfar looks at how Islamic Finance can provide a new opportunity for a broken global financial system

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The figure of St George is wrapped in mystery. For centuries historians have tried to establish who he really was,

and when and where he lived. The little information we have about him have come via literary works such as the “Passio Georgii” and the “Dectretum Gelasianum” from the year 496 C.E.

From the “Passio”, originally written in Greek and later translated into Latin, Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopic, and Arabic, we understand that George was born in Cappadocia (present day Turkey). His father, Gerontius, possibly of Persian origins, was a Roman army official from Cappadocia and his mother was from Palestine. They were both Christians from noble families. As a child George was raised with Christian beliefs. His parents called him Georgius (Latin) or Geõrgios (Greek), meaning “worker of the land”.

At the age of 14, George lost his father. A few years later, George’s mother, Poly-chronia, also died. As an adult George also joined the Roman army possibly under the rule of Dacian (known as the King of Persia), a co-emperor appointed by the Roman Emperor Diocletian (243-313) to rule over the conquered Persian territories. Dacian is reported to have been a strong pagan and disliked the “new faith” (Christianity).

According to the limited sources we have, George became a high ranking officer in the army and distinguished himself for his fighting skills. His Christian faith became an impedi-ment when the Emperor begun the persecution of all Christians in 303 A.D.

This was precipitated by an alleged plot to assassinate the Emperor which was attributed to a number of Christian army officers. George was offered the choice to renounce his Christian faith and save his life which he refused to do, and in an act of defiance, he publicly tore up the edict of the Emperor and denounced him for his killing of Chris-tians. Anticipating trouble, he gave his property to the poor and freed his slaves. He was eventually imprisoned, tortured, and finally beheaded at Nicomedia, on April 23, 303 A.D.

The cult of this Christian martyr started almost immediately, as is demonstrated by a basilica erected soon after his death on the site where it happened, in Lydda, in present day Occupied Pales-tine. Stories of St George’s courage soon spread and his reputation grew very quickly. He became known in Russia and the Ukraine as the “Trophy Bearer” and his cult spread to most of Europe. It is said that his head was carried to Rome, where it was preserved in the Church that is also dedicated to him.

The episode of the dragon, which is always present in any depiction of St George, was only emphasised and brought to light in the Middle Ages when Jacopo da Varagine (d. 1293), an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa, turned St George into an heroic knight. The designation would inspire generations of artists. The story goes that in the city of Silene in Libya, a dragon dwelt, keeping the population in terror. To satiate him the population offered up their animals one by one until they had no more. They would

then provide human sacrifices and in ultimate desperation, a young princess was selected - the king’s daughter named Cleo Linda.

The story then relates how St George rode up on his white charger, dismounted and fought the monster on foot until it eventually succumbed. He then dragged the dying monster into the city, using the girdle of the Princess, and slew the dragon in front of the people. St George was greeted as their saviour and the King offered him a bag of gold as a reward for saving his daughter. This he refused and asked that it be given to the poor.

Regardless of the authenticity of the story, the heroic martyr of Cappadocia became the symbol of Christ that defeats evil (represented by the dragon), and

By Yasser Ahmed

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posterity has remembered him for this story even though the original dragon against whom he fought was the Roman Emperor Diocletian and his co-emperor Dacian, nicknamed “the dragon” for his “draconian law” which he imposed on the early Christians. Undoubtedly the presence of his grave in the “Holy Land” earned him the attention of the Crusaders’ armies which begun to venerate him as the Martyr Holy Warrior a few centuries later, equating the symbolism of the dragon with the fight against Muslims and Islam.

By the time Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199) appeared on the scene, St George had become the official protector of the Crusaders. According to folk stories George was adopted by Richard the Lionheart as his personal saint in the Crusades. But there is

another spin to the story of St George. In the village of El-Khadr near Bethlehem a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church was erected in his honour. In fact St George is also considered the patron of Palestine where he is respected by both Christians and Muslims. Chris-tians regarded it as the birthplace of St George, Jews as the burial place of the Prophet Elias, and local Muslims as the home of the legendary saint el-Khidr. Christians, Jews and Muslims can be observed going to this mausoleum to ask its resident to intercede to God on their behalf for the cure of serious illnesses.

Although St George is England’s patron saint, he never set foot here. The earliest known reference to him in Britain was in an account by the Irish Abbot St Adamnan in the 7th century.

But the earliest reported appearance of the Cross of St George was at the siege of Caerlaverock Castle in Scotland in 1300. Edward I and Edward II both flew the St George banner in their wars against Scotland, but it was King Edward III who made him the patron saint of England and dedicated the Order of the Garter to him.

Recently British politicians have shown concern that St George has been adopted by right wing extremists in the UK as a symbol of “Britishness” who is ready to slay the “foreign invaders”. But how can it be? You need to employ a good deal of imagination to do this. I wonder how St George would really feel about the manipulation of his character considering that he possessed all the right credentials to be a symbol of multi-ethnicity. •

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Atheist

Becritical

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In a debate last year (2012) with Rabbi Lord Sacks, Richard Dawkins was asked by a member of the audience if he brought his children

up in “the atheist tradition.” To this, Dawkins replied: “There is no atheist tradition. The atheist tradition is: ‘Think for yourself. Be critical’.’’ In other words, Dawkins believes that atheism is a purely rational set of beliefs and therefore not something which can be inherited or received uncritically. We can presume that he thinks the absolute opposite is true of atheism’s arch-nemesis, religion.

In the run-up to the UK census in 2011, the British Humanist Association launched a campaign urging people to identify themselves as ‘no religion’ if they did not genuinely believe in a religious tradition. The results, published in late 2012, showed that 25% of people (up from 15% in 2001) had indeed stipulated that they did not have a religion. This is not the same as the hard atheism of Dawkins, but it nevertheless reflects the fact that a growing number of people in Britain think that there is no grounds for religious belief of any kind.

Today there is a widespread percep-tion that atheists are intrinsically more critical, rational or evidence-based in their beliefs than religious people. This fallacy has been popularised by the New

Atheists, many of whom are scientists and intellectuals, who - whether on the grounds of science, philosophy or morality – are determined to portray religion and religious believers as emotional, irrational in their beliefs and averse to asking questions. By contrast, they portray atheism as a logical, evidence-based position that anyone who carefully reflects on life’s big ques-tions will arrive at.

But these assertions are more polemic than fact. More than a thousand years of Muslim theological enquiry belie Dawkin’s claim that rational, evidence-based arguments are the sole preserve

of the atheist. In the works of the Islamic scholars of discursive theology (kalam), reason and rational certainty are considered paramount; blind-following is not allowed in matters of doctrine – meaning that each and every individual believer (even if they were born into a Muslim family) has a moral

duty to investigate the rational argu-ments and evidence for their beliefs. The Qur’an repudiates the idea of belief in the absence of evidence, “…they say, ‘We will rather follow what we have found our fathers following.’ What, even if their fathers neither applied any reason nor were guided?!” (2: 170) In other words, the Islamic tradition is, at its root, nothing less than: ‘Think for yourself. Be critical.’

Moreover, there are many atheists who clearly want something more than abstract rational arguments for non-belief which Dawkins subsumes under the heading of “critical thinking”. Athe-

ists have long created parodies of religion (mainly Christianity), like Pastafarianism (don’t ask!), but there are now straight-faced atheist “churches” springing up in London and other cities whose Sunday services, while differing in content, closely mimic the style of a Christian congregation. This clearly shows that there are non-rational (though not necessarily irrational) aspects to religion that atheists value and wish to retain, even in the absence of religious

belief. Whether this is couched in terms of community or public affirmations of “faith”, it is precisely these non-rational dimensions which constitute a “tradition” rather than a set of rationally-arrived at beliefs. It is intel-lectually dishonest to pretend that this is anything else.

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This shows that people, while cynical towards organised

religion, are still looking for two of its two major components; a set of rational,

evidence-based beliefs and a larger tradi-tion in which they can participate. Framed

thus, it appears that Islam has a great deal to offer. Our vibrant tradition of scholastic learning

has provided us with a wealth of rational and textual arguments for the beliefs we hold. Not only that, but in a time

when there is widespread disillusionment with the breakdown of traditional values, Islam – a social religion par excellence – has the potential to revive virtues such as honesty, family and community, which many British people would like to see a return to. Perhaps this is why, at a time of declining religious belief in general, Islam continues to attract five thousand new converts every year in Britain alone.

But while Islam has a great deal to offer the world, can the same be said of us? How critical have we been in the adoption of our beliefs? If we don’t know why we believe, we are hardly in a position to convince others. People find faith in a myriad number of ways; some are initiated through being brought up in a Muslim family, some through marrying a Muslim partner, others because they have Muslim friends; some embrace Islam

through careful deliberation, others fall in love with God’s religion at first

sight. But however we came to the faith is only part of the equation; the real ques-

tion is how are we keeping the faith? When families fall out, partners split up and friends

move away; when we find ourselves in difficulty, without a loving, caring community of fellow

believers, what keeps us on the path? When we go through the Dark Night of the Soul, what guides

us through to the other side? If we don’t have good reasons for believing, then sooner or later we will find

our belief is not enough to carry us through.

But how do you know if you have good reasons for believing? People often carry out mock job interviews either with themselves or with the help of a friend; try instead questioning your beliefs (whether alone or with a friend) and ask yourself what you believe and why. Then probe your answers and see if you can find anything you are unsure about. Write down your questions and go in

search of answers. Remember the famous saying of Imam Ali(a): ‘Knowledge is a treasure house whose keys are ques-tions.’ In this way you can strengthen your own beliefs and ensure that, should the opportunity ever present itself, you can explain them in a coherent manner to someone who is interested in Islam.

Faith is not ‘belief in the absence of evidence’ (despite the erroneous claims of both theists and atheists alike); true faith is the fruit of intellectual certainty. That certainty can only come from educating ourselves and interrogating our own beliefs. So while atheists may brandish the slogan ‘Think for yourself. Be critical.’ and believe it belongs to them, with a little more critical reflection on their part, they might realise that we’ve been saying this all along. •

Alexander Khaleeli is a researcher and student in the Hawza ‘Ilmiyyah of Qum. He earned his BA and MA at the Islamic College in London.

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When there is widespread disillusionment with the breakdown of traditional values, Islam – a social

religion par excellence – has the potential to revive virtues such as honesty, family and community,

which many British people would like to see a return to.

Faith

Atheistscritical thinking and traditionBy Alexander Khaleeli

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Words fall immeasurably short when describing the greatness of certain personalities. Their sheer perfection is enough to startle minds and in turn lead to a form of inner silence when tasked with describing their superiority. This, indeed, is the quality of great beings. The beloved daughter of the Final Messenger, Lady Fatima Al-Zahra(a), stands at the pinnacle of such personalities.

In the course of her short life, she soared to the insurmountable heights of brilliance and perfection. It is enough of a testament that her existence is wowen into the very heart of the Islamic message, since any study of Islam is surely incomplete without her mention. How then does one go about beginning to describe such a personality? Even more importantly perhaps, what prac-tical lessons can we derive from her life and example?

Living the CauseThe Holy Prophet(s) said: “Surely God becomes angry for the anger of Fatimah and becomes satisfied for her satisfaction.”

From the early years of her childhood right up to her final moments, Lady Fatimah(a) lived for a single objec-tive: Islam. She shared the pains and suffering of her father in the harsh, ignorant and oppressive reality of pre-

Islamic Makkah. Such was her care, affection and insight that the Holy Prophet(s) referred to her as “the mother of her father”.

In Medina, when new challenges faced the fledgling Islamic community once again she surged to the fore to protect the faith. It is in the very nature of revolutionary ideologies, particularly religious ones, that their veracity hinges upon the characters of their leaders, as well as those of their near kin. In this respect, the role played by Lady Fatima(a) is particularly important; both in her individual and social life.

One cannot help but shed tears when reading about just how simply this great personality lived. Hers was a life filled with day-to-day hardships in which she ground wheat, kneaded dough and contentedly confronted inadequacies in food and other basic needs, which took a cruel toll on her body. Despite the utter simplicity of her life, she was nonetheless a pillar of support for all those around her and an unrivalled figurehead of learning and spirituality. One should not easily overlook the vital role that this example played in instilling the right practical ethics into early Medinan society, particularly its womenfolk to whom Lady Zahra(a)

delivered regular classes and offered advice to help solve their problems.

About her worship it is sufficient to narrate the following words that have

reached us from the pages of history: ‘There was no one in this nation who worshipped more than Fatimah(a); she used to pray until her feet became swollen.’

Generosity and AltruismHer oldest son Imam Hassan(a) narrates: “I saw my mother Fatimah(a)

standing up in her mihrab [prayer niche] every Friday night. She bowed and pros-trated herself until dawn, and I heard her praying for the believers, naming them, and she prayed much for them and never for herself. So I said to her: O mother! Why don’t you pray for yourself as you pray for others? She said: O my son! The neighbour [first], then the house!”

This overwhelming concern for others and profound selflessness is an integral feature of the life of Lady Fatimah(a). When one inspects the characters of the greatest personalities, be it the blessed Mary, Jesus or the Final Messenger (peace be upon them all), one notices that their concern for the welfare of others vastly overshadowed

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any personal concern. Indeed, it was as if they did not have an existence of their own, but rather that the aim of their life was solely the well-being of others.

In this respect, Lady Zahra(a) stands out as a peerless exemplar of selfless generosity and altruism. So deeply was this quality embedded in her being that God, the Almighty, chose to specifically pay tribute to her generosity, sacrifice and sincerity in the Holy Qur’an. (76:8-12)

Truth and PatienceThe Holy Prophet’s wife, ‘Aisha narrates: “I have not seen any one more truthful than her – Fatimah - except only her father.”

The final months of Lady Fatimah’s life, following the death of her father, were undoubtedly the most painful and trying. It was during this period of tribulation that all her attributes could be witnessed most visibly. In the mosque of the Holy Prophet, she delivered her eternally reverberating sermon through which she established the true identity of the Islamic message and began the process of of rectifying deviations from the message of her father. The profundity of her words and the contents of her sermon constitute a guiding template for humanity untill the end of time.

In fact, even death could not silence her truth-seeking soul. In a final act of symbolic struggle, she willed to be buried at night in an unmarked grave so that through this act the community would raise questions, identify those who had deviated from her father’s path, and thereby distinguish truth from falsehood. •

Ali Jawad is a human rights activist and political analyst with a keen interest in international diplomacy.

By Ali Jawad

Lady FatimahAl-Zahra :(a)

Truth, Patience andRevolutionary Struggle

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Interfaith

(Drammatic Act)

Ethiopian Christian pilgrims carry a cross along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem

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In the south of Italy on the small island of Ischia, located in the Gulf of Naples, every Easter Friday, villagers in the town of Forio hold

one of the last remaining religious street plays in the country. This is a form of religious drama of medieval origin about the suffering, death, and resurrec-tion of Jesus(a).

‘Passion plays’ were originally performed in Latin and consisted of readings from the Gospel with interpolated poetical sections on the events of Jesus’ Passion and related subjects. Toward the end of the 15th

century, passion performances had become far more secular in content, having been degraded, in a religious sense, through their contact with carnival plays. Their production was forbidden by ecclesiastical authorities and only a few were revived after the Counter Reformation (1545 -1563).

Stages built for the occasion are located in different piazze (town squares) where the events of the last hours of Jesus(a) (from the Last Supper to the final crucifixion) are re-enacted by actors. On Easter Sunday in the village of Casamicciola Terme on the same island, a final act of this religious commemoration takes place. Following readings from the Bible actors re enact the event of the resurrection, of how Jesus’s followers went to the cave where his body was supposed to have been laid to rest, to find that he was no longer there.

In Christian theology the events related to the death of Jesus(a) are of utmost impor-tance since through the sacrifice and the resurrection of Jesus(a) humanity was saved from its original sin. As a consequence believing in Jesus(a) will constitute sufficient grounds for redemption.

The suffering of Jesus along the Via Dolorosa (road of pain) and on the cross is known as the Passion of Christ. So much have Christians identified with his suffering that they even began cults of self mortification. Over the centuries, in expressions of devotion arising from a desire to identify with the suffering of Jesus(a) people adopted a particular kind of ritual, a sort of self-inflicted physical pain known in Catholic countries as flagellation. This practice appeared around the middle of the 13th century, initially in central Italy. During public processions, some people would flagellate themselves with chains and sharp objects till they would bleed, convinced that this form of penitence could avoid wars and epidemics. They spread in Italy and in all parts of Europe during the epidemic of the Black Plague

of 1348-1349. Their excessive behaviour induced Pope Clemente VI to condemn them formally in 1349, ordering incarceration of those who performed it. The move-ment however was not totally eradicated; some groups resurfaced in the following century but on a small scale.

After many centuries of opposition from the Church this type of activity virtually disappeared to the extent that in Naples, up to 10 years ago, the only echo of the early flagellants could be identified in a group of men dressed in white running across the city going door to door collecting donations for the Church. However some still do it and in some countries outside Europe it remains normal practice.

The suffering of Jesus(a) and his resurrection is at the heart of Christian theology but as Amir De Martino explains Muslims can also rejoice at Easter and thank God for His grace towards Jesus(a)

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The suffering of Jesus(a) in Christianity represents the case par excellence of redemp-tive suffering and verses from the Bible such as: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8) or “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”, (3:16) are used to justify a theological position.

In Islam there is no such thing as redemption through the suffering of someone else. One will, on the Day of Judgement, be responsible for his own actions; this is why Muslims have difficulty in rationally understanding the above biblical verses in terms of redemptive suffering.

The general belief of Muslims is that Jesus(a) was not killed on the cross, but was raised bodily to heaven by God. As the Qur’an says:

“And for their saying, ‘We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the apostle of God’ - though they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but so it was made to appear to them. Indeed those who differ concerning him are surely in doubt about him: they do not have any knowledge of that beyond following conjectures, and certainly they did not kill him.

Rather God raised him up toward Himself, and God is all-Mighty, all-Wise”. (4:157)

There are however differences of opinion about the details of what happened to Jesus(a) before and during his capture by the Roman army. The most accepted theory according to Muslims is that when the Roman soldiers came to arrest Jesus(a) in the Garden of Gethsemane, by God’s intervention they were made to arrest Judas in place of Jesus(a), and Jesus was raised to heaven by God to return at an appointed time.

However some Muslims believe Jesus(a) was arrested and crucified and that he was not on the cross long enough to die and that the verses of the Qur’an cited above are meant to tell the Rabbis, who claimed credit for having been able to have him arrested by the Roman authorities, not to think that they prevailed in their wish

to see him executed. This second posi-tion can bring Muslims and Christians

closer since for Christians to deny the suffering of Jesus(a) on the cross is to under-mine the basis of their theology. For Muslims the details of the story of Jesus’s capture does not matter much. Muslims

concord that Jesus(a) was ultimately raised to heaven by God and is awaiting his second coming.

Without dwelling on our differences and our understandings of the nature of Jesus(a), we could say that in a certain way the Christian commemora-tion of Easter could be considered by Muslims as a time when God the Almighty showed his grace towards a person whose teachings were destined to spread far and wide. Despite the apparent sadness, Jesus’ story is one of success and part of the history of Abrahamic prophets which also belongs to Muslims. •

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It is not a secret that the Catholic Church always opposed St Francis when he was alive. Only much later did the harsh rules to which he

subscribed become acceptable. Those who followed him, the Franciscans, with their politics and ideals, have always been considered to be on the margins of the ‘mother church’. This is even truer of other orders such as the Jesuits. Today after nearly 1000 years the spirit of St Francis of Assisi finally enters the Church of Rome, in the form of the new Pope, ‘Francis I’.

The newly appointed Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio represents a first in many

respects. He is the first Pope to have chosen Francis as a name. He is also the first South American Pope and most importantly, the first Jesuit Pope in history.

But who are the Jesuits?

‘The Company of Jesus’, as they are also known, was founded in Paris by St Ignazio of Loyla in 1534. The order was initiated with the purpose of preaching in the Holy Land and to put itself entirely at the service of the Pope. This first objective was later abandoned and today the Jesuits still take a vow of obedience to the

Pontiff and are particularly zealous in the field of educational work.

An interesting curiosity is that the supreme authority of the order, the Superior General, is nicknamed the ‘Black Pope’ after the black garment he wears and for leading the most powerful and numerous Cath- olic order in the world. The mention of

the Black Pope also evokes prophecies of the coming of the end of the world and the end of the Catholic Church.

One such prophecy is attributed to St Malachy (1094-1148), the first Irish saint, who had a vision of the 112 pontiffs to come after his contemporary, Pope Celestine II. Since then there have been 111 popes, and Francis I - Jorge Mario Bergoglio who was first welcomed in the ranks of ‘The Company of Jesus’ in 1958 at the age of 20, is number 112. According to Malachy’s prophesy he will be the final pope before ‘the end of the world’.

Malachy describes the last pope as the ‘black pope’! Coincidence? One cannot be sure, but St Malachy’s prophecies are taken very seriously by the Catholic Church as some of his other predictions have proved to be accurate.

Jesuits come from a theological and philosophical training background. They live in open institutes divided into simple houses opposed to monasteries. The preparation of a novice usually lasts about 10 years and is supposed to lead to the acquisition of the basic Jesuit values: chastity, poverty and obedience.

Some members of this order are consid-ered to be the intellectual vanguard of the Catholic Church, working on key elements such as education, spirituality and improving the condition of the

poor. However at one time they were princes of inquisition and the armed hands of the Church.

The Jesuits played a fundamental role in Latin America’s conversion to Christianity by spreading the teaching of Ignazio of Loyola but there has not been a noticeable increase in the number of its members in Latin America for a considerable number of years in contrast to its increasing popularity in Asia and Africa. It was also the Jesuits who first entered Japan and China starting a channel of communication and intercultural exchanges making them the favoured channel for the Vatican’s diplomacy. Today the order counts about 17,600 members and includes 12,500 priests.

Despite its radiant history of success, the Company of Jesus has not always shared a happy relationship with Rome. In 1773 Pope Clement XIV dissolved the order but this was later revoked by Pope Pio VII in 1814.

The Jesuits did not have an easy life during the decades of military dictator-ship in Latin America, mainly due to accusations of being the ideological cradle of the movement of Latin Amer-ican “revolutionary priests”, promulga-tors of Liberation Theology.

Many people see signs of opening up, renovation and change in the selection of the new Pope, especially in the choice of his name. The Pope who comes from ‘the end of the world’ greeted his flock with the simple words “see you soon”. Even though age is not in his favour, his Jesuit independent spirit and his moral rigour may be his strongest asset. The new Pope has a huge task of regaining people’s confidence in a Catholic Church that has been hit by scandal after scandal. Pope Francis I has plenty of work to do, marrying innovation and conservation, charity and ecumenism, and keeping his door open to all. The new Pope’s credentials are also going to be tested in proving that his Order’s concern for the poor and oppressed does not remain simply a philosophical idea.

For Muslims the new Pope will have to rectify an icy atmosphere opened up two years ago due to statements made by Pope Benedict XVI in a speech delivered at the University of Regens-burg entitled “Faith, Reason and the University - Memories and Reflections”. Benedict’s words were seen to suggest that Islam preached violence against non-Muslims. •

With the election of a new leader, the Catholic Church starts a new chapter in its history. Ali Carlentini explores the origins of the Jesuit Order, from which the new Pope hails.

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Science

By Ghazaleh Kamrani

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Doctors are constantly looking for ways to detect the problems with a foetus during pregnancy to prevent

complications during and after child-birth. Medical photography plays an important role in the early detection of such problems.

Lennart Nilsson, a 90 year-old profes-sional medical photographer, spent 12 years gathering high quality photos of foetal growth in the uterus. These outstanding photos were taken by a common camera equipped with macro lens and electronic microscope.

In these pictures one can see foetal growth from the beginning of concep-tion to a complete embryo and it’s development into a mature baby. His unique photos have earned him the title of “a renaissance man in the twentieth century” and he has been compared with the genius Leon-ardo da Vinci.

The sensational “Drama of Life Before Birth” was just the begin-ning of Lennart Nilsson’s tireless exploration of the human body and the miracle of life.

As a Muslim scientist I have always been interested in finding common ground between Quranic clues about the human body and the scientific facts I was taught at university. It was quite enthralling when I came across Mr Nilsson’s album ‘Drama of Life Before Birth’. His unique pictures encapsulate well the Quranic verses 12-14 of Al-Mu’mineen

describing the process in which we were all once involved but do not

remember.

“… certainly did we create man from an extract of clay. Then we placed him as a semen drop in a firm lodging….”

In the beginning, when millions of sper-matozoa fall into the uterus they begin the big race toward the egg by passing through the Fallopian Tube. This race only has one winner as just one of the spermatozoa can make a hole through the wall of the ovule and slide into it.

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Then the nuclei of the sperm and egg fuse, which is called the fertilisation phase. This fertilised egg falls into the depth of the uterus and clings to it. During the first month an amniotic sac forms around the fertilised egg; this is filled with fluid. At this time the placenta develops and transfers nutri-ents from the mother’s circulation to the foetus, and also removes waste from the foetus’s body. A tiny heart forms with a rate of 65 beats per minute by the end of the fourth week. The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) is also formed.

“Then we made the cell-drop into a clinging clot, and we made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and we made [from] the lump, bones, and we covered the bones with flesh”

As month two starts, the primary face is formed with the cavities of eyes, nose, throat and lower jaw and after a few weeks the face is more recognisable; ears are like a fold of skin at the sides of the head and the eyes are more developed. The buds of arms, legs and fingers also appear. The baby’s hands, feet, fingers and ears develop during the third month. The eyelids are half open which in the coming days will become completely closed. The reproductive system also begins to form but the foetus’s gender is not yet clear.

The foetus’s heartbeat becomes audible during the 4th month and the foetus uses his/her hands to recognise surround-ings. Eyelids, eyebrows, eyelashes, nails and hair, as well as bones are formed and grow. At this stage the nervous system is mature enough to respond to external stimulations. The reproductive organs are now developed and the foetus’s gender is also now recognisable.

A network of blood vessels which helps bone development is formed in the 5th

month of pregnancy. Now the baby can hear and understand outside voices. At this stage the membrane between the fingers starts to disappear.

“Then we developed him into another creation.”

The baby’s movements are now palpable to mother. The baby is covered by tiny fluffy hairs called lanugo which have a protective role and are usually shed before birth or soon after. The baby’s skin colour is now reddish. Fingerprints

are visible and the eyes begin to open in the 6th month of its development. The foetus responds to sounds and may also have hiccups.

The foetus is growing fast and the last

stages of its development starts during the 7th month. The hearing system is formed and reactions to sounds and pain appear. A seven-month infant is mature and ready to leave the uterus. At this time the foetus slides downward moving into position so it can exit more easily. Foetuses which pass the 7th month continue to grow, the brain continues to develop and in the last stage of development the respiratory system begins to form.

Now the foetus responds to light, sound and pain and can move his or her neck and turn the head. Finally it is ready to enter the world. •

“So blessed is Allah,the best of creators.”

Ghazaleh Kamrani is a student of cellular and

molecular biology

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There are an estimated 1870 cases of meningitis B in the UK every year with one in ten victims dying of the disease.

Of the survivors about a quarter are left with life changing conditions such as brain damage or limb loss.

Children under the age of five are most at risk of contracting Meningitis B, a bacterial infection which leads to

inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. Experts believe that a simple jab is likely to

be effective against 73% of all different variations of Meningitis B.

Meningitis has several causes such as virus, bacteria

or fungi. Meningitis B is a highly aggressive strain of bacterial

meningitis which infects the protective membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord and may trigger sepsis, activation of blood clotting, gangrene of limbs and seizure. Although effective vaccines against the other common strains of bacterial Meningitis (A, C, W-135, Y3) exist, there has never been any vaccine for the B strain.

Rumours or misunderstandings that cast doubt on the safety of vaccina-

tions have undoubtedly set back the campaign for comprehensive vaccina-tions. An outbreak of measles in the UK in 2012 was linked to a flawed paper written by Andrew Wakefield claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism which cost a lot for US and UK governments.

However all is not lost. After 20 years of research finally a safe and effective Meningitis B vaccine has been devel-oped and has been licensed by the European Commission. This vaccine can be administered to infants aged two months or older either alone or in combination with other vaccines.

The fact that World Immunisation Week coincides this year with the licensing of the first anti-Meningitis B vaccine for use in Europe and the UK is a good opportunity to review the significant role of the vaccination. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which provides vaccination advice to the British government, plans to meet in June to discuss whether to roll out the Meningitis B vaccine in this country. However, its cost is currently proving a major concern.

The practice of inoculation against diseases goes back to Chinese and Indian practitioners prior to the 16th

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century. However in Europe it was first introduced by Dr Emmanuel Timoni, the British Ambassador Physician of Istanbul, in 1724.

Smallpox, which was responsible for 20% of all deaths in 18th century Europe, was the first disease against which people were immunised on the continent. It was also the first disease for which a true vaccine was made. The famous smallpox vaccine was created by Edward Jenner in 1796 by substituting a different and less dangerous disease for the deadly smallpox. Later on, Louis Pasteur developed the technique in the 19th century and created a new method of immunisation in which he treated the disease agents so that they lost the ability to induce the infection. Louis Pasteur created the first vaccines for Rabies and Anthrax but called his method “vaccination” in honour of Edward Jenner. The name vaccine is derived from a virus affecting cows which refers to Smallpox.

In vaccination a weakened or dead pathogen, or parts of the pathogen cellule, named the vaccine, are orally ingested or injected into the body. Upon exposure to the vaccine, the body’s immune system produces antibodies which remain in the body, sometimes for as long as a lifetime. When the body is exposed to the same pathogen in the future, it will suppress or eliminate the pathogen agents with its antibodies before they have a chance to multiply.

Diseases like Smallpox have accounted for tens of millions of deaths worldwide. At the beginning of the 20th century Rubella was still causing tens of thousands of stillbirths. However the practice of vaccination has eradicated or restricted a wide range of diseases in the world during the last century. Today, most countries have a scheduled free vaccination programme for almost 16 diseases which operate from the time of birth and includes, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, Pneumococcal Conjugate, Meningitis C, Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Human Papilloma virus. Some of these vaccines are applied only once and some should be administered repeat-edly at certain periods to ensure life-long immunity. Also, people in some certain risk groups such as pregnant women and healthcare workers may be offered extra vaccines such as Hepatitis B, Tuberculosis, Annual Flu and Chickenpox (Varicella).

World Immunisation Week, which begins this year on April 24, aims to promote the practice of vaccination as one of the world’s most powerful tools for good health. According to the World Health Organisation, vaccination prevents between 2-3 million deaths each year. However even now, an estimated 22 million infants are not fully immunised with routine vaccines, and more than 1.5 million children under five die from diseases that could be prevented by existing vaccines.

The goal of setting a week for immunisation is to bring more people under the umbrella of routine vaccination programmes. WHO and its partners aim to convince people that immunisation can save lives. By reinforcing political support for global immunisation, they are campaigning to mobilise resources to increase vaccination coverage with existing and newly available vaccines in undeserved and marginalised communities. •

Health

Medical Editor Laleh Lohrasbi

Laleh Lohrasbi explains how a simple jab could reduce mortality due to Meningitis B

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According to WHO one in three adults worldwide has hyper-tension, a condition which causes half of all deaths from

stroke and heart diseases. In 2004, this disease was responsible for 7.5 million deaths worldwide amounting to almost 13% of all global deaths.

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a chronic medical condition

in which the force of blood pushing up against the blood vessel walls elevates. This requires the heart to work harder than normal to circulate blood through the blood vessels. Uncontrolled hyper-tension can damage many organs and increases the risk of complications such as heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, blindness, irregularities of the heartbeat and heart failure.

Blood pressure is summarised by two measurements, systolic and diastolic, which depend on whether the heart muscle is contracting (systole) or relaxed between beats (diastole). Normal blood pressure in adults is within the range of 100-140mmHg systolic (top reading) and 60-90mmHg diastolic (bottom

reading). High blood pres-sure is said to be present if it is persis-tently at or above 140/90 mmHg.

Most people suffering from high blood pressure may not even know it and this is why it is also called the “silent

killer”. Hypertension usually does not have any symptoms and the only way to know if one’s blood pressure is high or not is to measure it routinely. Very rarely some symptoms may show such as persistent headache, blurred or double vision, nose bleeds and short-ness of breath.

There are two types of high blood pressure: primary (essential) hyperten-

sion and secondary hypertension. The main cause of primary hypertension is still unknown and it gradually develops through years and consists of 90% of hypertension cases world-wide. Secondary hypertension which appears suddenly is the consequence of an underlying disease or condition like kidney problems, adrenal gland tumours and some medications like birth control pills.

Although primary hypertension is mostly hereditary, it can be prevented or postponed by reducing the risk factors which trigger or speed up its development.

Reducing salt intake, avoiding harmful use of alcohol and tobacco, following a balanced diet, performing regular physical activity, maintaining a healthy body weight and most important of all, reducing stress, are the main ingre-dients of maintaining a healthy blood pressure.

To mark 2013 ‘World Health Day’, WHO has chosen Hypertension as its theme in order to reduce heart attacks and strokes by raising awareness of the causes and consequences of high blood pressure and to encourage people to change behaviours that can lead to hypertension. People are also asked to have their blood pressure checked regularly. WHO has also recognised the need to pressure national and local authorities to create enabling environ-ments for health activities to increase the number of health facilities offering blood pressure checks.

The World Health Day campaign aims to engage all of society; from policy makers and politicians to older people and youth with the aim of helping everyone lead a healthier and more fulfilling life style. •

58 59

Now that we know many facts about genetics and every high school student knows the exact structure and func-

tion of DNA, it is hard to believe that it was only in the second half of the 19th century, after 4 billion years of life on earth, that anybody knew the DNA molecule even existed.

An article published in the journal ‘Nature’ 60 years ago briefly discussed the double helix structure of the DNA molecule and suggested that the two strands of DNA allowed it to create identical copies of itself. This announce-ment by Watson and Crick changed the world of medicine and science forever.

From the time that George Mendel discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance in the 19th century it took several decades of effort by more than 20 scientists to bring us to the point of discovering the complicated structure, function and replication characteristics of the DNA molecule as we know it today.

DNA is the hereditary molecule in humans and all other living organ-isms and viruses, packaged in bundles called chromosomes, located in the cell nucleus, as well as small amounts in mitochondria and chloroplasts (other cell components).

The DNA molecule is the information storage (genetic characterisation) for anything which contributes to a living cell; the shape, the form, the size, the function, what the cell produces, how it is produced etc. Segments of the DNA molecule which carry this specific information are called genes. Each DNA molecule has a unique set of genes called genotype. Each gene has a unique specification which influences particular characteristics in an individual which is called pheno-type. Although the completion of the

human gene sequences (genome) was celebrated in April 2003, and it would appear that sequencing of the human chromosomes is officially finished, the exact number of human genes is still unknown.

All living organisms inherit their traits from their parents through the genes. Genetics is the science of genes, where molecular structure, function, behaviour and distribution of genes are analysed. Although genetics plays a large role in an organism’s behaviour, what is experienced by an organism after inception such as nutrition and health also has a large effect.

Genetic engineering is another branch in this field of science where genes are manipulated by using biotechnology to create genetically modified organisms in order to alter or improve their function for medical, industrial, agri-cultural and research purposes.

The effect of the DNA genes is translated through the transcription of another molecule named RNA (Ribonucleic acid) which will be then responsible for making specific proteins. Each of these proteins is responsible for a unique action. Gene prediction programs esti-mate a total of 20000 protein encoding genes for the human genome. Only 1.5% of the human genome has a protein coding role and some DNA sequences that do not code protein may still encode functional non-coding RNA molecules, which are involved in the regulation of gene expression.

The exact role of the other 50% of the human genome is still a long standing puzzle to scientists. We still have a long way to go! •

Dr Laleh Lohrasbi

is a pharmacologist. She has worked as an editor for the medical section of “Hamshahri”, a daily newspaper in Tehran.

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The mosque of Al-Qarawiyyin and its associated university are almost as old as the city of Fez el-Bali, which was estab-

lished in 809 under the Idrisids. The original building, founded in 857/9, was considerably smaller than what stands today as it was progressively enlarged and embel-lished. Named after the community of Tunisian migrants from Qairawan, neither the founder nor this small community could have imagined the remarkable destiny of what is now known as one of the world’s oldest universities.

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Places

The University-Mosque ofAl-Qarawiyyin, FezBeauty, Enlightenment and the Feminine Touchby Cleo Cantone

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It was a woman by the name of Fatima al-Fihri (d. 880), daughter of a wealthy Tunisian merchant, who commissioned its construction. A flourishing royal city, Fez attracted Arabs from Qairawan, then the largest city in the Maghreb. Signifi-cantly, Fez was already home to hundreds of families who had fled from Spain, especially Cordoba, and settled on the left bank of the Oued. Thus the two sides of Fez became known by their migrant populations, the Qairawanese (Qarawiyyin) and the Andalus and both gravitated around the eponymous mosques, Al-Qarawiyyin and Al-Andalus, founded by the Fihri sisters. The former was known as the mosque of Shurafa’, the latter as the mosque of Sheikhs. In the Merinid period (13th-15th centuries) numerous madrasas were built around Al-Qarawiyyin, and consequently, Al-Andalus (commissioned by Fatima’s sister Mariam in 859/60) declined conferring upon its rival undisputed prominence.

It appears that Fatima’s mosque received authorisation from the Emir Yahya ben Idris and that the land was purchased from a Berber who kept an orchard. This provides evidence of the rural aspect of Fez at the beginning of the 9th cen-tury, soon to become urbanised as a result of the construc-tion of Fatima’s private oratory. Building commenced on the first Saturday of the month of Ramadhan in 245 Hijri and Fatima continued to fast until its completion. Materials were taken from the land itself to make pisé (rammed earth) and limestone. Both Fatima and Mariam’s mosques had small courtyards (sahn) planted with fruit and nut trees, harking back to the orange trees in the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. The presence of greenery within the compound of the mosque provided shade and nourishment, conjuring a heterotopic prefiguration of paradise. One could also imagine that some of these trees may have simply been preserved from the preceding orchard as a token of respect for the Prophet’s(s)

saying: “Whoever plants a tree and patiently maintains it and tends to it until its fruition, every single fruit consumed from that tree is regarded by God as charity [on his behalf].”

The building remained unchanged during the reign of the last Idrisids but with the Fatimid foundation of Qairawan, Fez be-came the object of dispute between Fatimids and Umayyads, each vying for the prized Moroccan city. Out of respect, nei-ther party altered al-Qarawiyyin but rather bestowed it with favours: the most precious gift was the beautifully carved 12th century minbar. This wooden gem, a close relative of the ex-ample at the Kutubiyya mosque in Marrakech, is testimony to the long and glorious tradition of Andalusian wood and min-bar carving produced in 10th century Cordoba. It is worthy of note that the minbar in the Andalus mosque precedes that of Qarawiyyin by two centuries, making it the oldest surviving chair in Islam after that of Qairawan.

Although a Zirid creation, its carved motifs are Fatimid in inspiration and it is for this reason that the Umayyads be-gan destroying it during their seizure of Fez in 986. It was subsequently deemed worth preserving and an artisan was appointed to restore it to its former glory, turning an emblem of Shi’a faith into a symbol of Sunni orthodoxy.

Al-Qarawiyyin is situated at the heart of the commercial hub of Suq al-’Attarin, or Spice Market. As recently as the 1950s, students who studied at Qarawiyyin lodged in surrounding madrasas. The mosque’s reputation grew, attracting scholars of great and international repute, including: Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), Joannes Leo Africanus (c. 1494 – c. 1554?) or al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi). The range of subjects taught included Islamic mysti-cism, astronomy, theology, jurisprudence, and of course clas-sical Arabic.

In the early 1930s art historian and later adviser to UNESCO, Titus Burckhardt described how scholars sat by a particular pillar and the students would gather around on the hasira or straw matting. On my first visit to Qarawiyyin in 2004, straw mats still covered the mosque floor. By Ramadhan 2011, how-ever, they had all been replaced with nylon fitted carpets. (See article on hasira in islam today’s January issue).

Often the lessons took the form of animated discussions on readings of classical texts. What isn’t clear from various ac-counts is whether the teaching ever was addressed to women. This is probably because women were mostly educated at home but the topic of women’s education in the Medieval Maghreb is worthy of study.

At any rate, it can be assumed that the place currently set aside for them to pray - characteristically screened by mashra-biyya - indicates that the mosque was not out of bounds for the purpose of prayer.

Architecture of QarawiyyinThe so-called oratory of Fatima still exists today for both the Zenata and Almoravids who enlarged the mosque in the 10th and 12th centuries, respectively, honoured the original core of the building. In ca. 877 a dome was erected in front of the mihrab echoing the scheme of the Great Mosque of Qairawan (7th-9th centuries) and placing emphasis on the imam’s posi-tion before the congregation. Similarly, the addition of the minaret on an axis with the mihrab is another reference to its alma mater in Tunisia.

When Al-Qarawiyyin assumed the status of a congregational mosque in 932, a new minaret was erected, its position on the original axis shifted and the material used was stone whose low quality meant it needed a plaster rendering.

The tower is pierced by two openings, one three-lobed and the other a twin bay with two horseshoe arches clearly in-scribing the monument in its Andalusian and Ifriqiyyan con-text, namely the Umayyad Great Mosque of Cordoba and the Aghlabid mosque of Qairawan. The second tower or neffara, serves as a platform to sound the trumpet during the month of Ramadhan.

Much of the decorative repertoire as well as the hypostyle plan and square minaret bear witness to Fez’s close political, economic and cultural ties with Islamic Spain.

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After the 1492 expulsion of Muslims and Jews from the Ibe-rian Peninsula, an influx of refugees flooded into the city. Vis-ual references to the religious and palatine architecture of Is-lamic Spain are therefore particularly evident in the mosque’s square stone minaret (commissioned and funded by ‘Abd al-Rahman III, the first Umayyad caliph of al-Andalus), and by the carved stucco, wood, and glazed tile (zilij) ornamen-tal style derived from the Alhambra.

The decorative schemes and mate-rials of Qarawiyyin represent the apo-gee of Almoravid art, characterised by stuccoed brick, stone and tile re-vetment and carved cedar wood. It was perhaps this exu-berance that the successors of the Almoravids, the puritanical Almo-hads, wished to obliterate or at least obfuscate. In-deed, the restora-tion of the mosque by Henri Terrasse, whose monograph appeared in 1968, reveals beneath the layers of Almohad plaster the richness of their predeces-sors’ workman-ship: Kufic inscrip-tions, lobed arches, muqarnas or sta-lactite domes and magnificent wood carving.

The Almoravids were perspicacious enough to implant the artistic know-how of Andalusian Muslims into both Moroccan capital cities - Marrakech and Fez. The enlargement of the Mosque of Qarawiyyin was initi-ated under ‘Ali b. Yusuf between 1135 and 1142 using glazed or bonded brick that formed a beautiful interlaced design on the outer mihrab.

Of much later addition, the courtyard’s blue and white tiled

floor, the marble ablutions fountain, and the two fountain pa-vilions, which recall the Court of the Lions at the Alhambra, were added by the Sa’did Sultan ‘Abdallah ibn al-Shaikh (r. 1606-23).

What, if any, is the legacy of Fatimah? How many women in the Maghreb fol-lowed in her foot-steps and founded mosques or madra-sas or were the Fihri sisters something of a paradox, represent-ing a foreign, wealthy minority who were both pious and edu-cated enough to wish others to benefit from a place of wor-ship of incontestable beauty and inspiring scholarship?

On my last visit to Fez in Ramadhan 2011, Qarawiyyin was buzzing with life, everyone was dressed in their fin-est and although the atmosphere was reverberant with ju-bilation, it was diffi-cult to reconcile this image with that of my first visit in 2004 when sober turbaned old men in jellabas sat around pillars meditating or quietly discussing in small groups.

Perhaps the rel-evance of such a place - steeped in history and learning - is that it is still very much at the heart of Fez - spiritually and materially. •

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Cleo Cantone

obtained her PhD from the University of London (2006). Her book Making and Remaking Mosques in Senegal, based on her doctoral research, has recently been published by Brill. Currently she is working on a joint research project on Sufi architecture in Senegal.

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indigenous cultures and contemporary neighbouring states, or resulting from particular political changes?

The University of Southampton will host a free conference on Islamic Archaeology on 20th April 2013, addressing these issues.

Venue: Avenue Campus, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BFContact: E-mail: [email protected]

20 April 2013

Modern Parenting and Educating Children - Classical Advice! (Book Launch and Course)

Based on Imâm al-Ramli’s ‘Riyâdatul Sibyân’ translated and taught by Shaykh Abdul Aziz Ahmed

The course will look at the concept of education; Meaning of tarbiyya (devel-opment); Tadîb (education) riyada (exercise) and talîm (teaching); Intel-lectual development: Meaning of the ‘aql (intellect); culture and upbringing; Discipline and attaining maturity;

Tickets: £30Time: 9 am - 5 pmVenue: Birkbeck College, Malet St, London WC1E 7HXContact: www.kitaba.org

23-30 April 2013

SS&E Online Spring Conference 2013 & Doctoral Symposium Online conferenceThe Social Science and Education Online Conference & Doctoral Sympo-

sium is being organised by the Centre for Innovations in Business & Manage-ment Practice in London, United Kingdom. This is a purely online conference, which covers all areas of social sciences and education is open to PhD students.

Accepted abstracts will be published online (with an ISSN). Furthermore, full papers will be published in the Journal of Innovation and Best Practice in Social Science and Education

Info: (http://www.cibmp.org/journals/index.php/jibe/).

27 - 28 April 2013

Islam, Science and ScientismThe BMHC will be hosting this year’s event on Islam, Science and Scientism.

The conference will help to foster a better understanding of Muslim ap-proaches to science and scientism and will also be addressing the relationship between science, scientism and reli-gion.

In addition, it will focus on perceptions of science among Muslim scholars throughout history.

Time: 9:00am – 6:00pmVenue: British Muslim Heritage Centre, ManchesterContact: Web: www.bmhc.org.uk/events/islam-science-and-scientism

3 May 2013

Islamic Banking and Finance, Challenges of Survival and Development (Conference) The conference will bring together those concerned with Islamic banking

and finance worldwide in order to examine the underlying causes of failure and also success of this sector in the light of economic, legal, political and geographical variables.

Venue: Oxford Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance OIIBF, Oxford, UKContact: www.oiibf.org.uk

4 - 5 May 2013

MADARIJ AL-SALIKIN A Weekend Intensive Study

By Professor Ovamir Anjum [The University of Toledo]

The course will look at the following: About Ibn Qayyim – Life, thoughts & major works; About the book “Madarij al-Salikin”;

Selective chapters and lessons to be drawn;

Extensive Q & A sessions

Tickets: £20Time: 9 am - 5 pmVenue: Birkbeck College, Malet St, London WC1E 7HXContact: Web: http://islamiccourses.org/courses/salikin/

Disclaimer: islam today does not necessarily endorse or recommend any of these events, their contents and individuals or groups involved in them. We are not responsible for changes to times, fees or venues. Further informa-tion should be sought directly from the organisers.

Friday Nights 2013

The Friday Nights Thought ForumLondon’s weekly open gathering.

Time: 19:30 – 21.00Venue:Islamic Centre of England,140 Maida Vale, London W9 1QB

3 April - 19 June 2013

Spring 2013 Calligraphy Classes Organised by ‘The Arab British Centre’

The Arab British Centre will be hosting a twelve week Calligraphy course taught by Mustafa Ja’far. Knowledge of the Arabic language is not required.

The courses will teach the Naskh script of Arabic calligraphy, explain the development of Arabic writing and give an overview of this diverse art form. Participants will be advised of equip-ment required for the course in the first session.

Course cost: £200Time: Wednesdays, 18:00 - 20:00Venue: The Arab British Centre, 1 Gough Square, London EC4A 3DEContact: www.arabbritishcentre.org.uk/events/spring-2013-calligraphy-classesEmail: [email protected]

9 April 2013

MENA Construction and Infrastructure Series - The GCCBritish Expertise and the Middle East Association announce the first in a series of events looking at opportuni-

ties in Infrastructure and Construction across the Middle East and North Africa. This first session will look specifically at the Persian Gulf Region.

Tickets: This event is £75 + VAT for members and £150 + VAT for non-members.Time: 16:00 - 19.00Venue:The British Expertise premises, 10 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0DH.Contact: Web: www.britishexpertise.org/bx/pages/Event_view/727.php

17 April 2013

The Bahari Foundation Lecture in Iranian Art and Culture (Seminar)

Dr Barbara Brend (Independent Scholar)

Series: Islamic Art Circle Lectures Early ‘Siyah Qalam’ style and the Great Mongol Shahnamah

Time: 7pm - 9pmVenue: Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS, School of Oriental and African Studies, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XGContact: Email: [email protected] - Web: www.soas.ac.uk/art/islac/17apr2013-the-bahari-foundation-lecture-in-iranian-art-and-culture.html

19-29 April 2013

The BIG Drive Ambulance Aid Convoy: UK to PKMuslim Hands is now organising its first ever Ambulance Aid Convoy to travel through several countries and deliver ambulances to Pakistan. Partici-pants will require bags of enthusiasm and patience as they venture through different terrains, countries and driving conditions. The aim of this 10-day sponsored drive is to deliver a convoy of 25 much needed ambulances to the needy in Rawalpindi District, Pakistan.

Venue: Muslim Hands Head Office, Nottingham Jum’ah prayersContact: http://events.muslimhands.org.uk/item/382471

20 April 2013

Identities and Islam: Material Culture, Self and Society in the Pre-Modern Muslim World (Symposium)

Archaeological scholarship has revealed considerable temporal and geographic variation in material expressions of identity within the Islamic world, through architecture, art, crafts, burial and subsistence, as well as in the organisation of trade and exchange. How integral was the uniting force of Islam in the construction of personal, group, and state identity in the past? To what extent can we see identity as being formed locally and diachronically - either in opposition to different external and internal cultural groups, influenced by pre-existing

Islam today - issue 6 - April 2013

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