Al-Muslim Australia – Muslim World News

Singh invites Zardari, Gilani to watch high voltage match

2011-03-27T19:33:00.001-07:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

Pakistan welcomed on Friday IndianPrime Minister Manmohan Singh’s gesture of inviting his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari to watch the Cricket World Cup semi-final between the twocountries in Mohali on March 30, but deferred a final decision on the invitation till Mr Gilani’s return from Uzbekistan. If accepted, cricket diplomacy will provide fillip to real time diplomacy, where the two countries are set to resume their bilateral dialogue when the interior secretaries meet just two days before their World Cup clash.

“Invitations for President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from the Indian Prime Minister His Excellency Dr Manmohan Singh to watch the World Cup semi-final to be held at Mohali on March 30 have been received this evening at the Foreign Office,” spokesperson Tehmina Janjua said.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar termed the invitation a welcome gesture.

“We welcome the invitation. The prime minister is out of the country and a decision will be taken when he returns from Tashkent,” Mr Babar told reporters.

Mr Gilani is due to return on Saturday. He was earlier expected to return on Friday, but his flight at the end of the two-day official visit was cancelled because of bad weather over the Himalayas.

A top aide of the prime minister who is with him in Tashkent denied a claim made by TV channels that the premier had accepted the invitation. Consultations were being held with the Foreign Office about a response to the invitation, he added.

“We have asked for details and serious consideration will be given to it once we return to Pakistan,” the official said over phone from Uzbekistan. Pakistan’s High Commissioner in India Shahid Malik appeared upbeat about the prospects of Mr Gilani’s visit to Mohali and termed the invitation a positive development.

In his identical letters to Mr Gilani and Mr Zardari, the Indian prime minister said: “It gives me great pleasure to invite you to visit Mohali and join me and the millions of fans from our two countries to watch the match.”

Mr Singh is highly respected in Pakistan for his personal contribution to resuming the peace process, which was suspended following the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The two prime ministers successfully negotiated a peace document in Sharm El Sheikh in 2009, but their efforts had been scuttled because of strong opposition in India.

They made another breakthrough in Thimphu (Bhutan) last year, setting in motion concerted efforts for the revival of suspended talks even though it took both sides almost a year to agree on resumption of a full spectrum of dialogue starting on March 28 in Delhi.

Cricket is not new to diplomacy between the two countries. Former military rulers Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf had used cricket matches to improve bilateral relations.

Gen Zia travelled to India in 1987 to witness an India-Pakistan Test match in Jaipur on his own initiative to defuse tensions at that time. In 2005, Gen Musharraf managed to get an invitation from the Indian leadership to watch a one-day match between the two teams in New Delhi.

This is probably the first time that the Indians have themselves invited Pakistani leaders to watch the match. Iftikhar A. Khan adds: Pakistan has urged India to tighten security for its players.

According to knowledgeable sources, a formal request has been made by the interior ministry after Interpol said on Thursday that it had arrested, with the help of Pakistan, a terrorist who was planning to carry out attacks during the World Cup. It also came against the backdrop of a threat from the Hindu Shiv Sena organisation that it would not allow the Pakistani team to play the final in Mumbai. Pakistan will be playing in India for the first time after the Mumbai attacks.

According to an official, India has assured Pakistan that it would take all possible steps to protect its players and make the event safe.

The sources said that India had agreed to grant another 5,000 visas to enable Pakistanis watch the semi-final and the final.

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Malaysia release thousands of Bibles containing ‘Allah’

2011-03-27T19:32:00.001-07:00

Section: Local Communities - Category: Islam

Muslim groups have protested against the Christian use of the word Allah, saying it is an attempt to make Christianity appeal to Muslims.Malaysia’s constitution promises freedom of worship to all faiths.Christian groups say Malay-language Bibles containing the word Allah have repeatedly been blocked at customs over the years, and they are “fed up”. The Bibles are printed in neighbouring Indonesia mainly for Christians in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. They insist they have been using the word for decades. Rev Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, welcomed the government’s decision to release the Bibles, but said more needed to be done.

“We maintain the position that it is an inalienable right for Christians to read their scriptures in any language,” he said, adding this was a “basic human right”.

Religious divide
The Home Ministry initially justified withholding the Bibles saying there was a legal case under appeal that needed to be resolved.
It was a reference to the ruling by Kuala Lumpur’s High Court in December 2009 that allowed the Catholic newspaper, The Herald, to use the word Allah as a translation for God.
No appeal hearings have yet been scheduled.
Dozens of churches and a few Muslim prayer halls were attacked and burned in the wake of the 2009 ruling, highlighting the intensity of feeling about issues of ethnicity and faith in Malaysia.
The Prime Minister’s office said the government chose to release the Bibles because it was “committed to resolve amicably any inter-faith issues”.
It also said this decision would not jeopardise any future resolution of the larger legal conflict.

Analysts have noted that elections are likely soon in the state of Sarawak, where many Christians live, and the governing National Front parties need to shore up electoral support there.

Christian leaders say the word Allah has been used in their Bibles since before Malaysia was formed as a federal state in 1963.

Rising Malay and Muslim consciousness, sparked by Malay nationalist groups seeking political power, has brought the issue to the fore in recent years.

Malay Muslims make up almost two-thirds of the country’s population, but there are large Hindu and Christian communities.

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US assails Quran desecration

2011-03-27T19:31:00.001-07:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

As the US State Department condemned the desecration of the Holy Quran in Florida, one of the two controversial pastors responsible for this act said on Friday he would now visit America’s largest mosque to protest against ‘radical’ Islam.Pastors Terry Jones and Wayne Sapp, who run a fringe church in Florida with less than a dozen followers, have stirred an international controversy by burning a copy of the holy book inside their establishment on March 20. Sate Department’s deputy spokesman Mark Toner told a briefing in Washington that the Obama administration strongly condemned the burning.

Speaking at a press conference on the situation in Libya, the US official termed the burning of the Holy Quran an “abhorrent act”.

Pastor Jones, who created a similar controversy in September last year but later rescinded his plans to burn the book, apparently is enjoying the notoriety the burning has brought to him and his small religious outfit.

On Friday, he said he would visit the Islamic Centre of America, in Dearborn, Michigan, on April 22. The centre is one of the largest mosques in North America and services much of Dearborn’s large Muslim population. He said he would protest outside the mosque “against Shariah laws and radical Islam”.

“It is necessary that we set very clear lines for Muslims that are here in America,” Pastor Jones said in a written statement.

“They are welcome to be here. They are welcome to worship. They are welcome to build mosques. But we do expect them to honour and obey our Constitution.

“If they desire to change our Constitution, in other words to institute Shariah, then these Muslims are no longer welcome in our country. Now is the time that we make a very, very clear statement to radical Islam.”

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Japan warns radioactive levels high around plant after blast

2011-03-15T02:24:00.001-07:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

Japan’s prime minister said on Tuesday that radioactive levels had become high around an earthquake-stricken nuclear power plant after an explosion there, and there was a risk of radiation leaking into the atmosphere. Naoto Kan urged people within 30 km of the facility north of Tokyo to remain indoors and the French embassy in the capital warned in an advisory that a low level of radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within 10 hours.

Tuesday’s explosion was the third at the plant since it was damaged in last Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami.
Authorities have been trying to prevent meltdowns in all three of the Fukishima Daiichi complex’s nuclear reactors by flooding the chambers with sea water to cool them down.

As concern about the crippling economic impact of the double disaster mounted, Japanese stocks plunged 7.0 per cent to their lowest level in nearly two years, compounding a drop of 7.6 per cent the day before.

The full extent of the destruction wreaked by last Friday’s massive quake and tsunami that followed it was still becoming clear, as rescuers combed through the region north of Tokyo where officials say at least 10,000 people were killed.

“It’s a scene from hell, absolutely nightmarish,” said Patrick Fuller of the International Red Cross Federation from the northeastern coastal town of Otsuchi.

Kan has said Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two and, with the financial costs estimated at up to $180 billion, analysts said it could tip the world’s third-biggest economy back into recession.

The US Geological Survey upgraded the quake to magnitude 9.0, from 8.9, making it the world’s fourth most powerful since 1900.

Car makers, shipbuilders and technology companies worldwide scrambled for supplies after the disaster shut factories in Japan and disrupted the global manufacturing chain.

“Not Chernobyl”

The fear at the Fukushima complex, 240 km north of Tokyo, is of a major radiation leak after the quake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems. The complex had already seen explosions at its No. 1 and No.3 reactors.

Jiji news agency said Tuesday’s explosion had damaged the roof and steam was rising from the complex. It also reported some workers had been told to leave the plant, a development one expert had warned beforehand could signal a worsening stage for the crisis.

The worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 has drawn criticism that authorities were ill-prepared and revived debate in many countries about the safety of atomic power.

Switzerland put on hold some approvals for nuclear power plants and Germany said it was scrapping a plan to extend the life of its nuclear power stations. The White House said US President Barack Obama remained committed to nuclear energy.

Whilst the Fukuskima plant’s No.1 and No.3 reactors both suffered partial fuel rod meltdowns, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) had earlier said the No. 2 reactor was now the biggest concern.

A sudden drop in cooling water levels when a pump ran out of fuel had fully exposed the fuel rods for a time, an official said. This could lead to the rods melting down and a possible radioactive leak.

TEPCO had resumed pumping sea water into the reactor early on Tuesday.

“This is nothing like a Chernobyl,” Murray Jennex, a nuclear expert at San Diego State University, said earlier. “At Chernobyl you had no containment structure — when it blew, it blew everything straight out into the atmosphere.”

An explosion at the Soviet Chernobyl plant sent radioactive fallout across northern Europe.

US warships and planes helping with relief efforts moved away from the coast temporarily because of low-level radiation.

The US Seventh Fleet described the move as precautionary.

South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines said they would test Japanese food imports for radiation.

France’s ASN nuclear safety authority said the accident could be classified as a level 5 or 6 on the international scale of 1 to 7, putting it on a par with the 1979 US Three Mile Island meltdown, higher than the Japanese authorities’ rating.

Japan’s nuclear safety agency has rated the incidents in the No.1 and No.3 reactors as a 4, but has not yet rated the No. 2 reactor.

Towns Flattened

About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said at least 1.5 million households lack running water. Tens of thousands of people were missing.

“The situation here is just beyond belief, almost everything has been flattened,” said the Red Cross’s Fuller in Otsuchi, a town all-but obliterated. “The government is saying that 9,500 people, more than half of the population, could have died and I do fear the worst.”

Kyodo news agency reported that 2,000 bodies had been found on Monday in two coastal towns alone.

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After US, more countries will get iPad from March 25

2011-03-15T02:23:00.000-07:00

Section: Tech Info - Category: Latest Tech News

The new iPad went on sale on Friday as Apple fans lined up outside stores around the United States to be the first to snap up the sleek touchscreen tablet computer. Apple began selling the iPad 2, which was unveiled by chief executive Steve Jobs last week, online overnight and in its 236 US stores starting at 5:00 pm (2200 GMT). The iPad 2 will be available on March 25 inAustralia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The queues did not appear to be as long as those for the iPhone 4 released in June but thousands of people lined up outside Apple stores in San Francisco, New York, Washington and other cities to get their hands on the device, which is one-third thinner, 15 per cent lighter and faster than the previous model.

Hundreds of people formed a line around the block outside Apple’s flagship 5th Avenue store in New York, including some who camped out overnight swathed in rain gear and equipped with chairs and big umbrellas.

First in line was Hazem Sayed, an applications developer who bought his coveted spot from Amanda Foote, an entrepreneurial 20-year-old from Florida who staked her claim on Wednesday then auctioned the place on Craigslist.

“It went from $150 to $600 in about 10 minutes,” she said. Finally Sayed came in with the winning bid: $900.

Sayed said he’d be immediately taking his new iPad 2 to a business meeting in Dubai. “I’m going to buy two iPads. If I could I’d buy four,” he said.

Many others in the crowd were foreigners seeking to take advantage of an opportunity they won’t have in their own country for a while. The iPad 2 will go on sale in around two dozen other countries in late March.

Mingda Zhong, 18, a student from Nanjing, said that even the original iPad is rare at home. “You cannot buy the iPad 1 very easily,” he said. “Most Chinese do not have it.”Some 300 people formed a line outside the Apple store in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, many of them killing time by playing with their iPads.

In San Francisco, a queue of about 150 people wrapped around the block housing the Apple store in Union Square.

Many were holding places in line to buy iPads for others.

Joshua Leavitt, the first in line, said he was with an online service called TaskRabbit, where people perform services for others for a fee. He said he was buying an iPad for someone who is flying home to Singapore later Friday.

“He’s probably going to have the first iPad 2 in Singapore,” Leavitt said.

James Almeida, 24, a product design student at San Jose State University, was next, waiting to buy an iPad for myself.

“Josh was next to me in line so I asked about TaskRabbit,” Almeida said.

“So now I’m getting one for a guy in Malaysia.”Besides the size and weight, the other major improvement to the touchscreen tablet computer is the addition of front- and rear-facing cameras that allow users to take still pictures and video and hold video conversations.

Apple sold 15 million iPads last year, bringing in $10 billion in new revenue and creating an entirely new category of consumer electronics devices.

Dozens of other companies have been scrambling since then to bring their own tablets to market, most of them relying on Google’s Android software, and Apple is hoping the iPad 2 will keep it a step ahead of its rivals.

But with the exception of the Galaxy Tab from South Korea’s Samsung, rival tablet-makers have enjoyed little success.

Technology research firm Gartner is forecasting sales of 55 million tablet computers worldwide this year and another research firm, Forrester, said Apple has little to worry about for now.

“Competing tablets to the iPad are poised to fail, which is why we’re forecasting that Apple will have at least 80 per cent share of the US consumer tablet market in 2011,” Forrester said.

More than 65,000 applications have been created for the iPad, while there are currently only about 100 crafted for tablets running Android.

The iPad 2 is selling at the same prices as the original iPad, ranging from $499 for the 16-gigabyte version to $829 for the top-of-the-line 64-GB model.

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Breakthrough likely in ISI-CIA talks

2011-03-15T02:22:00.000-07:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are close to a reset in their knotty relations, with behind-the-scene negotiations reportedly making progress. A breakthrough is likely in days ahead. An end to the feud will not only help resolve the dispute over immunity for jailed CIA operative Raymond Davis but also help both countries overcome the hard patch in their ties.

“There are some positive developments in ongoing negotiations,” a security official told Dawn on Monday without specifying how much ground the two sides had covered.

He, however, said both sides were ‘grudgingly accommodating each other’ to save the overall bilateral relationship.

Though there are hardly any evident markers to judge progress in dialogue on affairs of spy agencies, US Embassy’s reaction to the Lahore High Court (LHC) avoiding a ruling on immunity for Davis was quite telling.

US Embassy Spokesman Alberto Rodriguez, in a very brief comment, said: “US position is well known and we are working with Pakistani authorities to resolve the issue.”

His reaction definitely contrasted that of Ambassador Cameron Munter after the previous hearing in the case by the LHC (Feb 17), when he said: “The United States is disappointed that the government of Pakistan did not certify that Raymond Davis has diplomatic immunity”.

The immunity dispute quite expectedly remained unresolved in the LHC because Davis is no more central to this controversy, which has been overtaken by other matters pertaining to the problematic Pakistan-US security cooperation whose bedrock is the collaboration between ISI and CIA.

The Davis episode was just the latest manifestation of the disquiet in the relations between the agencies that had been going on for some time and had found varying expressions, be it the frequent CIA allegations of Pakistanis patronising jihadi groups and being insincere in fight against extremists or filing of a law suit in a New York court by relatives of Mumbai carnage against ISI chief or blowing the cover of CIA’s Islamabad station head Jonathan Banks, leading to his recall.

Notwithstanding what face this friction in ties got from time to time, US officials confirm that there had been divergences over strategic interests and timing of anti-militancy operations—a reference to Pakistan military’s reluctance to go after the North Waziristan-based Haqqani network.

As the situation reached the tipping point and both the agencies engaged in an ugly public spat, ISI sought a redefinition of its terms of engagement with CIA.

ISI’s litany of complaints against CIA included the American agency developing its own network of undeclared spies and disregarding ISI as an institution and sacrifices of its personnel.

The progress in negotiations achieved so far, a source said, was made possible because of cool heads on both sides, who realised that keeping the ISI-CIA relationship intact was in the interest of both the agencies.

Analysts believe the outcome of the dialogue was crucial for settling the row over immunity for Davis.

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2011-03-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

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Australia beat valiant Kenya, reach quarters

2011-03-13T21:55:00.001-07:00

Monday, 14 March 2011 07:41
Written by Muslim News Magazine

Holders Australia claimed their place in the last eight of the World Cup on Sunday but they were made to work surprisingly hard by Kenya who restored pride with a defiant performance despite losing by 60 runs.Michael Clarke (93) and the returning Mike Hussey (54) bailed their team out of trouble to help set up a daunting 324-6 but Kenya defied the much-vaunted Australian fast bowling unit to score a respectable 264-6 in Group A.

Earlier, opener Brad Haddin had made 65 but Australia found themselves under unexpected pressure at one stage at 143-4.

After four straight losses, Kenya had clearly decided not to go down without a fight and Tanmay Mishra (72) along with Collins Obuya (98 not out) resisted with a stubborn stand of 115 for the fourth wicket.

The pace trio of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson regularly generated speeds in excess of 140 kmph but the Kenyan batsmen gave as good as they got and notched up their highest score in the tournament so far.

Three of the six Kenyan wickets to fall were by run-outs as the Australian fast bowlers and spinners almost ran out of ideas to dismiss a batting side which was skittled out in their previous four matches.

It had seemed as if the match was headed for a fast finish as Kenya slumped to 46-3 in the 10th over. But as the pitch lost its pace, Mishra took on the role of the aggressor and clobbered eight boundaries and one huge six.

Obuya, however, was more restrained at the start of his innings but accelerated towards the end and singled out Shane Watson for some especially harsh treatment.

Thomas Odoyo joined the African party with a 38-ball 35 at the end but the Kenyans always were well behind the asking run-rate and their valiant attempt fell short.

Earlier, Clarke (93 off 80 balls) paced his innings to perfection to avoid a middle-order collapse after Australia lost three quick wickets in the space of 15 balls at the end of the 27th over.

Clarke and Hussey (54 in 43 balls), who celebrated his return to the World Cup squad with a typically industrious innings, came together with Australia in a spot of bother and with a 300 plus score looking a long way off.

They immediately put the Kenyan fielders under pressure with singles and twos and the odd boundary to wrest the initiative back with a 114-run partnership for the fifth wicket at better than a run a ball.

Shane Watson (21) and captain Ricky Ponting (36) also got some runs under their belt.

US drone strike kills six militants

2011-03-13T21:54:00.003-07:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

A US drone strike targeting a rebel vehicle and a compound on Sunday killed six militants and wounded five others in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said.
The unmanned aircraft fired missiles in mountainous Spalga village, 15 kilometres northeast of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district and a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked rebels.

“US drones fired six missiles targeting a militant vehicle and a nearby rebel compound owned by a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader, Rahimullah, killing six militants,” a senior security official in Miranshah told AFP.

Five militants were also wounded in the attack, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The identities of those killed and injured were not immediately known.

Another security official also confirmed the strike and casualties but said it was not clear how many drones had taken part in the attack.

He added that several drones were still flying in the area.

Earlier in the day, a US missile strike in the lawless tribal region of South Waziristan had missed its target, a militant vehicle, allowing at least four militants to flee.

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Japan quake causes day to get a bit shorter

2011-03-13T21:54:00.001-07:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

You won’t notice it, but the day just got a tiny bit shorter because of Friday’s giant earthquake off the coast of Japan. NASA geophysicist Richard Gross calculated that Earth’s rotation sped up by 1.6 microseconds. That is because of the shift in Earth’s mass caused by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

That change in rotation speed is slightly more than the one caused by last year’s larger Chile earthquake. But 2004’s bigger Sumatra earthquake caused a 6.8-microsecond shortening of the day.

The Japan quake is the fifth strongest since 1900.

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Warner Bros to offer movies through Facebook

2011-03-11T20:56:00.001-08:00

Section: Tech Info - Category: Latest Tech News

Warner Bros is making some of its films available on Facebook, opening up a new revenue source for the Internet social network and signaling new competition for online entertainment companies. Consumers can pay for the movies using Facebook Credits, a virtual currency so far used mainly in social games on the site, according to Warner Bros, a unit of Time Warner Inc, on Tuesday.

Facebook, which makes money mostly through online advertising, takes 30 per cent of the revenue from sales by third parties on the website using Credits

The service will initially be available in the United States, the company said.

The streaming of full-length Hollywood films on Facebook creates a new role for the 500-million-plus member social network, which has grown into one of the most powerful Web players by making it easy to share photos, videos and other content with friends.

In a note to investors on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs analyst Ingrid Chung said Facebook represents a long-term threat to online rental service Netflix Inc that caught Wall Street investors by surprise.

“The ‘wisdom of friends’ could be a bigger driver of movie viewership than the ‘wisdom of crowds,’” wrote Chung.

Shares of Netflix were down 5.8 per cent at $195.45 late Tuesday afternoon.

However, Lazard Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett said in a note to investors that online pay-per-view services have not proved as popular as subscription-based movie services, and noted that the Warner Bros offering is a “far cry” from Facebook launching a subscription service.

Shares of Apple Inc, which offers pay-per-view movies online, were up 0.3 percent at $356.42. Shares of Amazon.com Inc, which also rents movies online, fell 1 percent to $167.44.

It was not immediately clear whether other movie studios were planning similar projects with Facebook.

The first movie available on the Warner Bros Entertainment page on Facebook is “The Dark Knight”. Additional titles will be available for rental or purchase in the coming months.

Rentals cost 30 Facebook Credits, or $3, for 48 hours, and viewers can pause and restart a movie whenever they log back in.

One person close to the Warner-Facebook project told Reuters that it was not a partnership, but rather, a Facebook application that Warner developed on its own, using the website’s open payment and technology standards.

More than 400 games and applications use Facebook Credits, the company said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. “We’re open to developers and partners that want to experiment using credits in new and interesting ways, and we look forward to seeing what they come up with.”

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Quake, monster tsunami stun Japan

2011-03-11T20:55:00.000-08:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

The strongest quake ever recorded in Japan unleashed on Friday a monster tsunami that claimed hundreds of lives, and a minister warned there could be a discharge of radiation from a nuclear plant.

The towering wall of water generated by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake the seventh biggest in history pulverised the northeastern city of Sendai, where police reportedly said that 200-300 bodies had been found on the coast. ALmulslim News said the final death toll was likely to pass 1,000.

The 10-metre wave of black water sent shipping containers, cars and debris crashing through the streets of Sendai and across open farmland, while a tidal wave of debris-littered mud destroyed everything in its path.

At least 337 people were killed in the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis, police and press reports said.

The National Police Agency said 137 people had been confirmed dead and 531 missing, with 627 others injured in the tremor, and a spokesman said this did not include the bodies reportedly found on the Sendai coast.

“The damage is so enormous that it will take us much time to gather data,” an official at the agency said.

Trade Minister Banri Kaieda warned that an operation to relieve a pressure build-up at Fukushima nuclear plant following the quake could release radioactive steam. Authorities had earlier ordered 2,000 residents living by the plant in the northeast to evacuate after a reactor cooling system failed.

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'Islamic awakening in ME rooted in Iran'

2011-03-11T20:54:00.000-08:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

A senior advisor to Leader of theIslamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has highlighted Iran's guiding role in the ongoing Islamic movements in the region.
“We are now witnessing a new wave of Islamic awakening which as friends and foes have confessed is modeled after Iran,” IRNA quoted Ali Akbar Velayati as saying on Thursday.

Velayati described the uprisings in Arab nations in North Africa and the Middle East against their autocratic rulers as a new chapter in history. “We have not seen a development of such depth and magnitude in contemporary history,” he said.

“This awakening started with the surge of old colonialism and coincided with the popular revolution in France and the industrial revolution [in the West], which bore no fruit for Muslim nations, but occupation and death,” he noted.

Ayatollah Khamenei's top advisor described the people's faith in Islam as a distinctive feature of the wave of Islamic awakening and a factor that preserves national and religious identity.

“These awakenings are the inherent result of Islam, because Islam is a dynamic religion and wherever obstacles are cleared from its path it creates uprisings like that of early Islam,” he pointed out.

Velayati, however, warned that colonial powers in the West have been plotting new schemes to counter such Islamic revolutions through mass media and the Internet and called for due cultural work to fend off the enemy's propaganda.

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Sun is shining on Asian tourism trade

2011-03-10T20:42:00.000-08:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

The sun is shining on the tourism trade in Asia-Pacific with double-digit growth notched up in 2010, spurred largely by Chinese and Indian middle classes packing their bags for a break abroad.Strong economies, the proliferation of low-cost airlines and a burgeoning constituency of online shoppers are adding to the region’srosy outlook.There was an 11 per cent rise in arrivals in the region overall last year, according to preliminary data from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). And 2011 is also expected to be a strong year.

“Asia will receive international arrivals at close to double that of the world average growth rates,” PATA’s deputy CEO John Koldowski told AFP

“It’s Asians travelling to Asia, that’s the key to all these numbers and the big shift we are seeing globally in the tourism market. It’s all happening in Asia now.” South Asia reported the strongest arrivals growth with a gain of 14 per cent, highlighting a record year for India which posted 5.6 million foreign inbound visits for the year, a nine per cent increase.

Over 70 million people went to Southeast Asia, 12 per cent up on 2009, with Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines all ratcheting up record growth.

Australia and New Zealand and the Pacific islands also had a record year for tourist arrivals.

The total travel market in Asia Pacific is expected to reach $212 billion this year, reflecting a near five per cent increase over 2010, according to industry analyst PhoCusWright.

Growth in the region is being boosted partly by a newly minted middle class in the enormous populations of China and India – around 46 million Chinese travelled abroad last year, as did over four million Indians, PATA say.

And they take their wallets and credit cards with them.

Chinese travellers spent almost $44 billion in 2009 while travelling overseas, according to data from the World Trade Organization – and that’s excluding the cost of getting there.

“For some markets Chinese and Indian tourists are extremely important,” said Koldowski.

“Indian travellers to Singapore, for example, travel in an average group size of four against an overall average of 2.9 people and spend on average 5.8 days there against a total average of 4.0 days.” The proliferation of low-cost airlines, particularly in Southeast Asia, is also a shot in the arm for the industry.

Carriers such as Malaysia’s AirAsia and Cebu Pacific in the Philippines, among others, continue to expand aggressively.

People from Europe and North America are also heading to Asia and the Pacific in their droves – arrivals from Europe were up 11 per cent to 24 million, PATA say, while arrivals from North America grew by over 10 per cent to 13 million.

“Travel has generally rebounded from the global financial crisis,” Carl Jones, director of advisory services for American Express Business Travel in the region, told AFP

“For developing nations, which make up a large portion of Asia-Pacific, short vacations to neighbouring countries will continue to be most popular. As nations grow, so does their exposure and disposable income, leading to trips to farther afield.

“Asia-Pacific will continue to be a growth engine for travel – for both business and leisure.” And many of those will book their trip online, another area of huge potential growth for the travel trade.

US Internet travel booking giant Expedia plans to launch at least five new Expedia-branded sites throughout Asia, having already recently launched a new site in Singapore.

“Already in 2011, we’re seeing growth rates in markets like Asia that are outpacing the growth that we saw in 2010,” an Expedia spokeswoman told AFP.

“One of Expedia’s primary focus areas in 2011 will be on growing its presence in Asia-Pacific and we plan to invest heavily in the region, as we think the opportunities are immense and in some cases untapped.” Booking through mobile devices and social media is also expected to help the tourism industry grow.

According to industry analysts, such as PhoCusWright, the US travel market is approximately 38 per cent online, Europe is 34 per cent online and Asia Pacific is 21 per cent online.

Expedia recently bought mobile travel application firm Mobiata and EveryTrail, a GPS-enabled publishing platform to create outdoor tours and city guides for mobile devices.

“Consumers will use their mobile devices more and more to research and purchase products and services, including travel, at an increased rate,” the Expedia spokeswoman told AFP.

“Social media and user-generated content will continue to be an important factor in the travel decision-making process, with more travellers than ever relying on reviews, photos and videos, and recommendations from peers.”

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China blogger angered over losing Facebook account

2011-03-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

Chinese blogger and activist Michael Anti wants to know why he is less worthy of a Facebook account than company founder Mark Zuckerberg’s dog.
Anti, a popular online commentator whose legal name is Zhao Jing, said in an interview Tuesday that his Facebook account was suddenly canceled in January. Company officials told him by e-mail that Facebook has a strict policy against pseudonyms and that he must use the name issued on his government ID.

However, Anti argues that his professional identity as Michael Anti has been established for more than a decade, with published articles and essays.

Anti, a former journalist who has won fellowships at both Cambridge University and Harvard University, said he set up his Facebook account in 2007. By locking him out of his account, Facebook has cut him off from a network of more than 1,000 academic and professional contacts who know him as Anti, he said.

”I’m really, really angry. I can’t function using my Chinese name. Today, I found out that Zuckerberg’s dog has a Facebook account. My journalistic work and academic work is more real than a dog,” he said.

Zhao said there is a long tradition in China for writers and journalists to take pen names, in part as protection from retaliation from authorities. If Facebook requires the use of real names, that could potentially put Chinese citizens in danger, he said.

”For my fellow Chinese, this policy could easily help Chinese police identify them,” he said.

Dissidents in a variety of countries have argued that Facebook’s policy can endanger human rights activists and others if their identities become known.

Facebook says its policy leads to greater trust and accountability for its users.

It’s not the first time Anti has had problems with an Internet site. In 2005, his blog on a Microsoft site was shut down by the company following pressure from Chinese officials.

Microsoft’s action led to a public outcry.

Zuckerberg recently set up a Facebook page for his newly acquired puppy, ”Beast,” complete with photos and a profile.

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‘Radicalization’ hearings reignite US Muslim debate

2011-03-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

A US lawmaker on Thursday was to hold provocative hearings on the alleged radicalization of US Muslims, in a move critics say fans anti-Islamsentiment nearly a decade after the 9/11 attacks. Representative Peter King, the Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, has promised a thorough probe, setting the stage for one of the most controversial congressional debates since the 2001 attacks. “I want (Americans) to realize the extent to which Al-Qaeda is attempting to radicalize within the Muslim-American community,” King said Wednesday in summing up his intent.

The nation’s major Muslim groups, none of which have been invited to testify at the Capitol Hill hearing, and other rights defenders have blasted King’s “fear-mongering.”

“The seven million Americans (who are Muslim)… deserve more than collective guilt by suspicion,” said Shahid Buttar, who heads the non-denominational and non-partisan Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

By trafficking in bias and xenophobia, “Representative King aims to essentially be the (Joseph) McCarthy of the 21st century,” Buttar said.

McCarthyism refers to allegations of treason or subversion without proof, and was coined after the former US senator’s anti-communist witch-hunts in the 1940s and 50s.

King has said that Muslim leaders and mosque imams are doing too little to stop the radicalization of young Americans and are not cooperating with law enforcement. He has also said most US mosques are controlled by extremists.

The charges have alarmed US Muslim communities, the very ones President Barack Obama’s administration insists have been crucial to helping reduce the extremist threat.

Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder shot down King’s assessment that Muslim leaders have not helped law enforcement, stressing that they “have contributed significantly” to thwarting attacks.

“We don’t want to stigmatize, we don’t want to alienate entire communities,” Holder said.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik of the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations insisted that King was launching a modern-day “witch-hunt.”

But he and others acknowledged that some American Muslims, while the numbers are small, had indeed been radicalized in the United States.

“We’re not in denial as a community that something is going on,” he said. King is “on to something, but he’s moving in the wrong direction,” he said, voicing the same frustration held by many Muslim leaders, who say they are still viewed with suspicion despite the help they provide to law enforcement.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations expressed concern with how King “has been singling out and stigmatizing the American Muslim community.”

CAIR director Nihad Awad warned that King’s “approach is going to radicalize young people.”

Several rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, insist the probe should be broadened to include all extremist violence, though not extremist thought, which they insist is protected by the US Constitution.

With the battle lines drawn, the congressman at the center of the storm has vowed he “will not back down” on his investigation, which has divided fellow lawmakers.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Tuesday reiterated his support for the hearings, but fellow Republican and House Speaker John Boehner has been mute on the issue, essentially distancing himself from King.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was “deeply concerned about these hearings, which demonize law-abiding American Muslims who make important contributions to our society.”

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer has also objected to the hearing, saying it “sends the wrong message to the Muslim-American community.”

”We need them to work with law enforcement to identify terrorist threats, not be afraid of them,” he said in a statement.

King said two Muslim-Americans with knowledge of radicalization practices in US mosques will testify, as well as an African-American whose son was radicalized and converted to Islam.

Representative Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the US Congress, has said he would appear before the committee, in part to offer “an alternative view” to King’s.

CAIR cited a recent study by Duke University that said 11 Muslim Americans have committed domestic terror attacks since 9/11, killing 33 people, compared to about 150,000 murders in the country over the same period.

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Huge foreign portfolio outflow of $7.25m

2011-03-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

Section: Business & Finance - Category: Make Money Online

As the Brent is on the boil, foreignfunds are seen to be quickly shifting capital from the emerging markets – that largely depend on oil, to the developed markets. On Thursday, the Pakistan capital market saw foreignportfolio outflow of $7.25 million which many market participants thought was major bleeding witnessed in many months. “Most foreign funds were re-entering the developed markets-US, Japan, which they had deserted a couple of years ago in search of higher returns in the Emerging markets”, said an analyst who keeps tab on international funds behaviour.

The foreigners were watching with concern the uncertain outcome of the uprising in Middle East and particularly Libya and wondering whether the fire would spread further to more oil producing countries.

At the KSE, the $7.25 million net sale by overseas investors on Thursday included shares in Engro worth $2.4 million, traded in off-market deals, traders said. They said that Fauji Fertilizer and MCB Bank were other two stocks, which passed on from foreign to local hands. But the redeeming feature of all of that was that the shares offloaded by foreigners were fully absorbed by local individual and institutional participants, represented by the fact that the KSE-100 index slipped by a mere 0.02 per cent or 2.36 points during the day. This reflected a departure from Feb 22 trend when a high net sale by overseas investors to the tune of $3.1 million had brought the market crashing down by 315 points.

Atif Malik, head of institutional sales at JS Global said that the reason for foreigners to flee the emerging market was their concern over mounting inflation and interest rates.

The rising prices of oil and commodity were feared to hurt the regional markets, which was why US, Japan and several other developed markets were enjoying the benefit of return of the money, which earlier had departed to foreign lands.

Atif produced figures of foreign selling in regional equity markets since the start of the year-to-March 9, which quite clearly showed that Pakistan had so far remained immune to the gloomy trend prevailing in most other emerging and frontier markets: Negative trend (net outflow) was witnessed in India: $1.8 billion; Indonesia: $524 million; South Korea: $2.5 billion; Thailand:$508 million; Philippines: $115 million. While a few saw positive (net inflow), which included Pakistan: $71 million; Taiwan $165 million; Vietnam $54 million and the flow of liquidity entering the Japanese market, peaked at $18.7 billion.

The fire that fuelled concern of investors in KSE stocks on Thursday was that the rally that had driven stock prices up by an incredible 10,000 points since January of 2009 and provided return of 28 per cent to the equity investors in 2010 was led almost entirely by foreigners.

Offshore funds were now controlling nearly a quarter of the KSE free float. What would be the outcome, if foreigners decided to seek an exit? The question was troublesome but many participants thought the concern may be overblown.

“As the Margin Trading leverage product enters the KSE from Monday, local investors with larger participation would be able to absorb the foreign sale, if at all, it were to come”, said a trader who held on to the optimistic outlook.

EAGLE FOREX

2011-03-09T23:15:00.000-08:00

EAGLE FOREX

Being the main force driving the global economic market, currency is no doubt an essential element for a country. However, in order for all the countries with different currencies to trade with one another, a system of exchange rate between their currencies is needed; this system, is formally known as foreign exchange or currency exchange.

In the early days, the system of currency exchange is supported solely by the gold amount held in the vault of a country. However, this system is no longer appropriate now due to inflation and hence, the value of one’s currency nowadays is determined through the market forces alone. In order to determine the value of a currency’s exchange rate, two main types of system is used which is floating currency and pegged currency.

For floating exchange rate, its value is determined by the supply and demand of the global market where the supply and demand is bound by all these factors such as foreign investment, inflation and ratios of import and export. Normally, this system is adopted by most of the advance countries like for example UK, US and Canada. All of these countries have a similarity where their market is well developed and stable in economic terms. These countries choose to practice this system due to the reason where floating exchange rate is proven to be much more efficient compared to the pegged exchange rate. The reason behind this is because for floating exchange rate, the market itself will re-adjust the exchange rate real-time in order to portray the actual inflation and other economic forces. However, every system has its own flaw and so does the floating exchange rate system. For instance, if a country suffers from economic instability due to various reasons such as political issues, a floating exchange rate system will certainly discourage investment due to the high risk of suffering from inflationary disaster or sudden slump in exchange rate

We can’t kick Kamran out in the middle of the WC: Waqar

2011-03-09T23:12:00.003-08:00

Thursday, 10 March 2011 13:36
Written by Muslim News Magazine

Coach Waqar Younis is not willing to dump struggling wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal even after his wodereful performance behind the stumps played a key part in Pakistansuffering one of its worst ever defeats in the World Cup. But all bets are off when the dust settles from the one-day tournament. New Zealander Ross Taylor went onto to score a career-best 131 off 124 balls on Tuesday, with Akmal twice letting the Kiwi batsman off the hook _ on 0 and 4.

The 110-run margin of defeat came close to Pakistan’s biggest ever loss in the World Cup when England recorded a 112-run victory in 2003 at Centurion, South Africa.
“Without a doubt, he dropped catches which really cost us the game,” Younis said of Akmal’s poor work behind the stumps.

“We are in the middle of the tournament, we can’t really sort of kick him out at the moment.”

Akmal has had big question marks hanging over his performance for over a year now since Australia whitewashed Pakistan in test, one-day and twenty20 series last year.

The out-of-form wicketkeeper also erred during Pakistan’s narrow 11-run win over co-host Sri Lanka last week when he twice missed opportunities to stump Kumar Sangakkara.

Akmal also dropped Scott Styris, which would have given captain Shahid Afridi his 16th wicket in the tournament on Tuesday.

Asked whether it was time to think about someone else for the wicketkeeper’s job, Younis insisted the World Cup was not the ideal time to think along those lines.

“After World Cup I think maybe we can think about it,” he said. “We are in the middle of the tournament and I don’t think we can make such a change.”

Younis said Pakistan had a few days before it takes on Zimbabwe on March 14 at Pallekele, near Kandy, but conceded time was running out for Akmal to make amends.

“We have five days off, we will try to rectify his mistakes,” he said.

“In such a short time we can’t rectify all his mistakes but we can always try.”

Pakistan has beaten Kenya, Sri Lanka and Canada in its first three matches while batting first before failing miserably in the run-chase against the confident Black Caps.

Former Australian batsman Ian Chappell, now commentating at the World Cup, was as blunt as ever.

“If his batting was as good as Don Bradman’s,” he said on air, “he couldn’t score enough runs to make up for what he costs them with his keeping.”

Akmal is Pakistan’s latest attempt at a batsman who keeps wicket. He dethroned Rashid Latif and Moin Khan in 2004 and has been behind the stumps since, resisting all attempts to drop him.

Afridi told Pakistan’s private television channel Geo News that the younger Akmal _ Umar _ could replace Kamran at the World Cup.

“It is very much an option and we might try it in the next game,” Afridi said.

“We have five days before the next game so whatever is better for the team we will try it.”

Kamran has a one-day international batting average of 27.25 and has scored 2,835 runs in more than 100 appearances. His elegant batting is widely admired, but his wicketkeeping has overshadowed his batting performances of the past two years.

Pakistan next plays against Zimbabwe on March 14 and victory could ensure it a place in the quarterfinals before the game against Australia on March 19 in Colombo.

Pakistan plans to buy more F-16s

2011-03-09T23:12:00.001-08:00

Section: Tech Info - Category: Latest Tech News

Pakistan is trying to purchase used F-16 fighter jets from the United States to enhance its air capabilities, diplomatic sources told. “We will take as many as they are willing to give,” said a diplomatic source when asked how many of these aircraft Pakistan was seeking.
In 2006, the US Congress agreed to give Pakistan 28 F-16C/Ds under its EDA or excess defence articles initiative. Fourteen of these aircraft have already been delivered.
These are the same that Pakistan purchased from the United States in the 1980s but EDA equipment is almost cost-free.

Some of these aircraft are used for extracting serviceable parts for the existing fleet while those fit for overhauling are inducted into the air force. “Because of the disparity with India, our needs are huge,” said the diplomatic source. “Ideally, we should buy new F-16s but the current economy does not allow us to pay $40-50 million a piece.”
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a lightweight, compact fighter aircraft designed to perform a wide range of military missions. More than 4,000 F-16s have been or will be produced for 24 nations worldwide.

Meanwhile, the US media quoted Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman as saying that while negotiating with the US for more aircraft, Pakistan was simultaneously developing its defence manufacturing capability to reduce its reliance on America.

According to these reports, he told an air chiefs` conference in Melbourne, Australia, that he had made a concerted effort to increase the manufacturing capability of Pakistan`s defence industry because the country has been subject to sanctions and embargoes in the past.

When asked about data links to tie F-16s to JF-17s, Air Chief Marshal Qamar said that Pakistan was working to develop its own solution.

“We have Link 16 on the F-16s. We will not fiddle with Link 16 and not have direct linkages [between the JF-17s] with the F-16,” he said. Pakistan also has different types of airborne early warning and control (AEW and C) aircraft.

Besides AEW and C aircraft, the air force chief said, “We are talking to some western companies about tankers too.”

When asked if Pakistan would like to be part of the Chengdu J-20, fifth-generation fighter programme, the air chief said: “We don`t have any involvement in this development so far. This seems to be an indigenous effort and we will keenly watch it. Obviously, China is a very good friend.” But it will be years before the J-20 becomes operational in the Chinese air force, he added.

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Muslim Cops Put Faith, Lives On The Line

2011-03-09T23:11:00.001-08:00

When Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca asked Sgt. Muawiya "Mike" Abdeen to set up a liaison unit to local Muslims in 2008, the idea was to build bridges to a community that is often fearful of, or unknown to, law enforcement.
It was tough going at first, said Abdeen, a 23-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department.
"When we used to drive up to a mosque or a Muslim school, people would get scared, they walked away, they closed the doors," said Abdeen, 48.

But the officers kept returning, helping with parking during Friday prayers, giving talks to Muslim youths about safe driving, and meeting with local and national Muslim groups.

Now, Abdeen said, deputies are welcomed with hugs and tea.

"I always tell other officers, 'If you expect the community to talk to you, you have to talk to them, too," said Abdeen, who was born in Jerusalem and came to the U.S. at age 20. "Terrorism is just a small part of it. The community wants to see that the local police department is genuinely interested in helping them solve the daily quality-of-life issues."

As hearings on Capitol Hill raise the specter of "extremist" Muslims who don't cooperate in terror investigations, the thin blue line of Muslim cops and deputies offer a glimpse of American Muslims who put their lives -- and sometimes their faith -- on the line in the interests of security.

Baca said he has no doubts about Muslims' loyalty to America after deputy traineee Mohamed Ahmed was shot and nearly killed by an alleged gang member earlier this year.

"I've worked with Muslim deputies, and I know that Muslim deputies are as courageous as any other deputies," said Baca, who had recruited the Somali-born Ahmed as part of his effort to improve relations between law enforcement and local Muslims.

It's not just Muslims who need to overcome fear and suspicion: Muslim officers often have to brief their comrades on Islamic beliefs and etiquette, which is why Abdeen recently worked with the Muslim Public Affairs Council to develop a 15-minute training video.

In February, Capt. Paul Fields of the Tulsa, Okla., Police Department was disciplined for refusing to attend a "Law Enforcement Appreciation Day" at a local mosque. He quickly filed suit, alleging a violation of his religious rights because he said visiting a mosque to make nice with Muslims is not a police duty.

The greater challenge, however, is forging positive relationships with local Muslims who are wary of undercover FBI agents inside their mosques, or dragnet prosecutions in the wake of 9/11.

House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., who will convene the hearings on homegrown extremism, has charged that "the leadership of the (Muslim) community is not geared to cooperation."

Baca, who is scheduled to testify at King's hearings, disputes those charges, saying Muslims have several times led officials to extremist individuals. When there is a lack of cooperation, it doesn't necessarily imply terrorist sympathies.

"It's not that they don't want to cooperate, but because they either don't know that we are there for them, or often because they're scared to reach out to us," said Imam Khalid Latif, a chaplain for the New York City Police Department, which has a few hundred Muslim officers and staff.

Many Muslims are immigrants who come from countries where police are corrupt and brutal, and whose fears are amplified by what some perceive to be an anti-Muslim atmosphere in the United States.

Not that long ago, the idea of a Muslim seeking a career in law enforcement was "something you did not do," said Mubarek Abdul-Jabbar, vice president of the New York City Policeman's Benevolent Association

"They were seen as the enemy and doing that was bordering on treason."

When Abdul-Jabbar joined the department 28 years ago, finding a partner was hard. "A lot of guys didn't want to ride with me because they said you can't trust a man who didn't drink and smoke," said Abdul-Jabbar, 55, whose son is also a member of the NYPD.

Often times, in their quest for acceptance, some Muslim officers will engage in what Abdul-Jabbar calls non-Islamic behavior, like drinking alcohol or swearing.

"You spend a quarter of your life with these guys, so you want to fit in," he said. "These are the guys that are going to back you up. You have to have their support, you don't want anyone thinking, 'Oh he's not a good guy.'"

Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca created a Muslim Community Affairs Unit in 2007 -- a move that has led critics to accuse him of coddling extremism sympathizers.

When former Rep. Mark Souder criticized Baca's relationship with the Council of American-Islamic Relations at a homeland security hearing last year, Baca shot back that Souder was "un-American."

Baca will be back on Capitol Hill on Thursday (March 10) to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee to refute charges by committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., that American Muslims do not want to cooperate with law enforcement.

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Consultation Services

2011-03-08T20:57:00.000-08:00

Consultation Services

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What is lead generation? Online lead generation is one of the most cost effective and measurable ways to acquire new customers. Online lead generation is about getting contact details for potential customers who have requested information on an advertiser’s product or service. In the current economic climate, marketers are increasingly looking to channels that are accountable and where return on investment is easily calculable.

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Olive Web - A Web Design Company

2011-03-08T20:56:00.001-08:00

Section: Business & Finance - Category: Career

Olive Web – Company Structure

At Olive Web Design we believe in matching the right skills to the right project. We feel that by having a large in-house development team we would be leaving ourselves in the position that we had to assign an individual to a project because they were short of work, rather than because they were the right person for the job. We feel that this is not in our best interests or in the best interests of our customers. Web projects can require skills from a diverse range of areas, including:

Graphic and web design
Client side development
Server side development
Content writing and editing
On-line and off-line marketing
Usability assessments and testing
Accessibility assessments and testing
Security
Information architecture

Many of the above skills can be broken down further into smaller groups. We evaluate each project based on our knowledge and experience and then source the necessary skills from our pool of partner companies and freelancers.

We are always on the lookout for talented freelancers to join us which is why we have spent time optimizing our jobs page to be highly ranked on Google for ‘Web Design Jobs’ and ‘Design Jobs’. We have also developed links with other prominent companies and individuals within a number of on-line communities including Web Standards and Accessibility ‘gurus’.

When you bring your project to us you can be sure of the highest quality of service delivered through individuals whose skills and experience are well matched to your project.

Olive Web Philosophy

We design web sites that focus on usability. This means web sites that are simple to use, easy to navigate, and that help the user to find information and products quickly. We work hard to create design that is elegant, timeless and compelling. Yet, we never allow our desire for great art to overwhelm the need for good function.

As the web moves away from being the “cool new toy” to a tool for information and research, web design must change with it. Web design must support your message, not overwhelm it. Therefore, web design must be done with restraint. Visual toys such as animation and sound must be used only when the content or product warrants it, not simply as useless decoration.

Why must web design face this new reality? The Web is not television (despite efforts to make it so). It is currently an information resource for most users, not an entertainment medium. Therefore, web design must make information easily accessible. That is its core responsibility. Additionally, e-commerce is about meeting the needs of diverse customers quickly. Simplicity, ease of use and clear navigation are powerful web design tools that enhance the customer experience, and your bottom line as a business owner.

Mr.Wasif Jones, the creative force behind Olive Web, not only Design web sites, but helps businesses by designing web sites intelligently. I avoid the fads that quickly go out of style and focus on what matters most to the customer. Anything that hinders your ability to communicate clearly to your customer is left out. That is what good web design is all about. We invite you to CONTACT US when your business needs a web site. We can help you to make the Internet a hard-working part of your business toolkit.

Olive Web Profile

Interactive Web Design Company provides high quality, reasonable priced products and service, including web design, web program, design, SEO and other web service. It is convinced that it is a good investment using our services. Client using our service are increasing in the past year. Our Mission is to satisfy our clients.

Olive-Web Design Services Includes:

Website Design | Flash,PHP,ASP,etc.
Web Programs | CMS,CRM
Domain Registration
Web Hosting
Flash Website Design | Flash Web Program
Graphic design | Corporate Identity, Visual Identity
Print Media Design | Logo Design, Business Card Design, Name Card Design, Letter head Design, Envelope Design, Leaflet Design
Web Promotion, Google Promotion, Yahoo Promotion
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
SEO (Search engine optimization) for website design
W3C Compatible Website Design
Business Programs – Online Payment, Online Shopping, Email Marketing

White House Seeks to Allay Muslims’ Fears on Terror Hearings

2011-03-06T23:05:00.001-08:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

Article Index
White House Seeks to Allay Muslims’ Fears on Terror Hearings
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As a Republican congressman prepares to open hearings on the threat of homegrown Islamicterrorism, President Obama’s deputy national security adviser visited a mosque here on Sunday to reassure Muslims that “we will not stigmatize or demonize entire communities because of the actions of a few.”The White House billed the speech by the adviser, Denis McDonough, as a chance for the administration to lay out its strategy for preventing violent extremism. But the timing was no accident;

Mr. McDonough was in effect an emissary from the White House to pre-empt Representative Peter King of New York, the House Homeland Security Committee chairman, who has promised a series of hearings beginning Thursday on the radicalization of American Muslims.

“In the United States of America, we don’t practice guilt by association,” Mr. McDonough told an interfaith, but mostly Muslim, audience of about 200 here at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, known locally as the Adams Center. “And let’s remember that just as violence and extremism are not unique to any one faith, the responsibility to oppose ignorance and violence rests with us all.”

Mr. McDonough made no explicit mention of the hearings or Mr. King. But his speech came on a day when the back-and-forth over Mr. King’s plans crescendoed, from the airwaves of Washington’s Sunday morning talk shows to the streets of Manhattan to this northern Virginia suburb, a region packed with Muslim professionals, many of whom are extremely wary of Mr. King and his plans.

In Washington, Mr. King, who represents parts of Long Island, faced off on CNN with Representative Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Democrat and the only Muslim in Congress. Mr. Ellison said he would testify at Mr. King’s hearing on Thursday despite his deep conviction that it is wrong for Congress to investigate a particular religious minority.

In New York, 500 people demonstrated near Times Square to protest the hearings and call on Mr. King to expand his witness list to include other groups.

“That’s absolute nonsense,” Mr. King said in a telephone interview, adding that Al Qaeda is trying to radicalize Muslims and that that effort is the leading homegrown terrorism threat. “The threat is coming from the Muslim community,” he said, “the radicalization attempts are directed at the Muslim community. Why should I investigate other communities?”

As the Times Square demonstrators held up placards declaring “Today I am a Muslim Too,” Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, and Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam who is a co-founder of a project to develop a mosque near ground zero, addressed the crowd.

“To single out Muslim Americans as the source of homegrown terrorism and not examine all forms of violence motivated by extremist belief — that, my friends, is an injustice,” Rabbi Schneier said.

Mr. King and Mr. McDonough each took pains on Sunday to say that he had no quarrel with the other. “We welcome any involvement in the issue,” Mr. McDonough said of the hearings. “It’s an important issue.”

Mr. King said that he and Mr. McDonough had spoken recently and that he did not disagree with any element of Mr. McDonough’s speech at the mosque.

For weeks, Muslims have been expressing deep anxiety over the hearings, which Mr. King has titled “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and That Community’s Response.”

So far, witnesses he has identified include Mr. Ellison; Representative Frank R. Wolf, a Republican from Virginia; and Zudhi Jasser, president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. (Mr. Jasser made headlines last year when he was publicly critical of Mr. Obama’s statement supporting the right of Muslims to build the proposed mosque and Islamic center near ground zero.)

In addition, Mr. King said on Sunday, he will call as witnesses two relatives of people who have been radicalized. He would not name them, but said one had a nephew who was murdered, and the other had a son who committed “horrible crimes.” He said they would detail “how this happened, what it did to their families, what it did to the community, how this originated in mosques.”

The congressman said additional hearings — he is not certain how many there will be — would most likely focus on topics like radicalization in prisons and the flow of foreign money into mosques. But because Mr. King has not been specific about his plans, rumors are swirling.

“Everybody I talk to worries about it,” Mr. Ellison said during his Sunday morning appearance with Mr. King on “State of the Union” on CNN. He added, “It’s absolutely the right thing to do for the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee to investigate radicalization, but to say we’re going to investigate a — a religious minority and a particular one, I think, is the wrong course of action to take.”

Yet for many Muslim leaders, the initial outrage and fear is giving way to a determination to participate in the testimony and shape the outcome. Rizwan Jaka, a board member of the Adams Center here, said leaders of mainstream mosques were eager to testify about their cooperation with law enforcement.

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National focus on Muslim radicalization debate

2011-03-06T22:50:00.001-08:00

Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

The White House on Sunday praisedAmerican Muslims for helping fight violent extremism, but a House leader on terrorism issues said they aren't cooperating enough with law enforcement to counter the radicalization of young followers by al-Qaida-linked groups.
Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, speaking at an interfaith forum at a Northern Virginia mosque, commended its members for taking "an unequivocal stand against terrorism.""You've sent a message that those who perpetrate such horrific attacks do not represent you or your faith, and that they will not succeed in pitting believers of different faiths against one another," McDonough said.

But Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, re-asserted warnings about al-Qaida terrorists targeting Muslim youth in this country.
"The overwhelming majority of Muslims are outstanding Americans, but at this stage in our history there's an effort ... to radicalize elements within the Muslim community," he said in a preview of his hearing Thursday on the extent of the problem and the Muslim community's response.
"It's there and that's where the threat is coming from at this time," King said in an interview broadcast Sunday.
"I don't believe there is sufficient cooperation" by American Muslims with law enforcement, King said. "Certainly my dealings with the police in New York and FBI and others say they do not believe they get the same — they do not give the level of cooperation that they need."

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