McLaren is set to offer Lewis Hamilton another five-year contract worth in excess of £100 million, according to reports from Monaco.

A basic salary of £20 million a year would make Hamilton the highest-paid British sportsman in the world before endorsements.

A Brief Note on Automatic Stabilizers in Islamic Economy

Salman Ahmed Shaikh

Non-discretionary fiscal policy with automatic stabilizers can help in
stabilizing the business cycles. In this article, we discuss how institution of
Zakat acts as automatic stabilizer in an Islamic economy.

Institution of Zakat as Automatic Stabilizer

Zakat is the compulsory payment to the government on one’s income and
wealth in an Islamic economy. Zakat is levied both on one’s wealth and
income. Zakat, by its nature of being a source of purification of one’s wealth
and earnings and through consistent application of this principle, must be
levied on all forms of wealth and income.

Verse 60 of Chapter Al-Tauba lists the heads of Zakat and directs the
government in an Islamic economy as to who should be the beneficiaries of
Zakat.

“Alms are for the poor and the needy, and those employed
to administer the funds; for those whose hearts have been
(recently) reconciled (to truth); for those in bondage and
in debt; in the cause of Allah; and for wayfarer; (thus it is)
ordained by Allah, and Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom
(Al-Tauba: 60)”.

Beyond Nisab, Wealth Zakat of 2.5% and Income Zakat of 5% (when
productive enterprise uses both labor and capital as major inputs) and 10%
(when productive enterprise uses both labor and capital as major inputs) is
prescribed.

Proportional Zakat linked with income acts as an automatic stabilizer. When
aggregate personal disposable income increases, more Zakat is collected and
more amount remains at the disposal of government to allocate as transfer
payments to Fuqura (poor and needy), Masakeen (extremely poor and
needy) and Gharimeen (borrowers in trouble).

When personal disposable income decreases, obligatory Zakat also
decreases and thereby providing an automatic relief to the income earner
who is going through a lean patch.

Besides, the proportional income levy, Zakat on wealth redistributes wealth
too. So, if an economy is in disequilibrium and policies fail to immediately

recover and boost incomes, wealth Zakat enables the distributive allocation
that works independently of business cycles and help stabilize the extremes
of business cycles.

Transfer Payments as Automatic Stabilizer

When the personal disposable incomes decline in recessions, more people
will become eligible for Zakat. Since Zakat is levied on both income and
wealth, the redistribution of wealth will always be functional and operative
in an Islamic economy due to wealth Zakat irrespective of the phase of
business cycle. Transfer payments to unemployed, poor, needy, debtors etc
will continue when the economy faces a recession.

Besides this, a consistent and credible low tax rate policy with broader
Zakat base will ensure in minimizing distortions, boost aggregate demand,
encourage investment by decreasing costs of doing business and this
could also simultaneously solve microeconomic problems of imperfection in
markets by increasing competition and helping to reduce market power.

Video advertising:
Vimeo
Youtube
Facebook
Event in facebook

OSLO, Norway (AP) — An Iraqi man whose brother was killed in Norway’s worst peacetime massacre hurled a shoe at the confessed killer and urged him to “go to hell” in a rare outburst Friday that briefly interrupted the terror trial of Anders Behring Breivik.

The incident was the first display of anger inside the normally subdued court room where the far-right fanatic is being tried for the bomb-and-shooting attacks that left 77 people dead on July 22.

Hayder Mustafa Qasim, 20, traveled to Norway from Baghdad this week to attend the proceedings against Breivik in Oslo’s district court, his lawyer, Kari Nessa Nordtun, told The Associated Press.

His brother Karar Mustafa Qasim, a 19-year-old who had moved to Norway as an asylum-seeker, was among the victims of Breivik’s shooting rampage at a youth camp, Nordtun said.

“I took off my shoe, got up, shouted at the killer, got eye contact with him and threw the shoe,” Qasim was quoted as saying by the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.

“He was alone in Norway, without family,” Qasim said of his brother. “The killer took his life. And he ruined the life for me and the family. I have traveled from Iraq to Norway to be in court. And it has made an enormous impression on me.”

Throwing of shoes to insult someone has long been a form of protest in many countries, but the practice gained widespread attention when an Iraqi threw his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush at a televised news conference in Baghdad in 2008 during the Iraq war.

Witnesses said forensic experts were going through autopsy reports for some of the victims when a man in the second row suddenly stood up and threw a shoe at a desk where Breivik and his defense lawyers were seated.

“He shouted, ‘You killer, go to hell.’ And repeated it several times” in English, said Mikaela Akerman, a Swedish journalist who was in the court room.

The shoe hit one of Breivik’s defense lawyers but she was not hurt.

Breivik remained calm and “smiled a little” as he watched security guards apprehend the man and take him out of the court room, Akerman told The Associated Press.

“He keeps shouting and is crying heavily as he’s being led out,” Akerman said. “Some of the spectators clapped their hands. Some yelled ‘Bravo.’ Many others started crying.”

Breivik addressed the court as proceedings resumed after a 10-minute break. “If someone wants to throw something at me, you can do it when I walk in or when I leave, thank you,” he said, according to Akerman.

Police operations leader Rune Bjoersvik said the man was a brother of one of the victims, but didn’t name him. Bjoersvik downplayed the outburst, calling it a “spontaneous and emotional reaction” that didn’t pose a “serious security risk.”

The man was emotionally distressed and was taken away from the court in an ambulance, he said.

Qasim’s lawyer said the outburst was unplanned. He had listened quietly to his brother’s autopsy report on Thursday, but after hearing several more on Friday he couldn’t hold back his emotions, Nordtun said.

“It was a sudden reaction,” she told AP. “There was such a stifling atmosphere in the court. Afterward people clapped. The tension that was in the room was released.”

The incident offered a sharp break with the polite atmosphere that has reigned inside the courtroom, even as Breivik testified in graphic detail on how he set off a car bomb that killed eight people in Oslo’s government district and then hunted down teenagers at the governing Labor Party’s annual youth camp on Utoya island. More than half of the 69 people killed on Utoya were teenagers.

Breivik has admitted to the attacks but pleaded innocent to terror charges, saying the victims were traitors for embracing multiculturalism. He claims to represent a European network of modern-day crusaders opposed to Muslim immigration, but prosecutors say group does not exist.

His mental state is the key issue to be resolved during the trial. If found guilty and criminally sane, he would face 21 years in prison, though he could be held longer if deemed dangerous to society. If declared insane, he would be committed to compulsory psychiatric care.

Police didn’t say how the shoe-throwing incident would affect their security procedures at the court but as the trial resumed later Friday, three security guards were placed at the front of the gallery.

Frode Elgesem, a lawyer for the bereaved, said he didn’t consider the incident a violent attack.

“I experienced this outburst as a desperate expression of despair,” he told Norway’s NTB news agency.

The defense lawyer who was hit by the shoe, Vibeke Hein Baere, told national broadcaster NRK she hoped the incident would not be repeated during the trial, which is scheduled to end in late June.

“There are many weeks left and I hope and believe that we will return to the dignified manners we have seen up until now,” she said.

___

Associated Press writer Karl Ritter in Stockholm contributed to this report.

Yesterday, clutching a remote control and reading authoritatively from an autocue, he looked perfectly at home as he took over the forecast on a visit to BBC Scotland.

He was introduced live on air by lunch-time news presenter Sally Magnusson with the words: ‘Over to you, Your Royal Highness

Let the countdown begin…

10. Patience: Give it some time! You and your child both have to get used to this. Even if you are a native speaker of your child’s minority language, it can take a while to figure things out. And once you are completely on board, take the journey one step at a time. Don’t rush your child, it will only make things worse. Remember, you are raising a multilingual child, not trying to win a race!

9. Comfort: Do you or your child feel uncomfortable speaking the language? Make sure you don’t embarrass your child by asking her to speak the language out loud in front of others or to use the language in uncomfortable situations. Start in the comfort of your own home and go from there. Sometimes it is the parent who is uncomfortable using a minority language with his/her children, even if it is a native language. If this applies to you or your child, then talk about it as a family. Work out the areas which cause the most embarrassment or why it might feel uncomfortable.

8. Age: Our children go through phases in their lives. Their relationship with their minority language will be experienced along these same patterns. If your child is going through a phase where he wants desperately to fit in at school, then rejecting a minority language may be part of this process. Be gentle with your child and address language issues just as you would other changes in your child’s behavior. Try your best to find out how your child is feeling overall. If appropriate, talk with your child about how speaking the minority language feels to your child. Work on finding a compromise so that both you and your child can feel good about speaking your language.

7. Resources: Does your child have a good source of language resources? I’m not talking about language-learning text books (unless your child gets a kick out of them)! I’m talking about making sure your child has interesting books in only the minority language. A good supply of DVDs, video and computer games, board games, etc. all in the minority language can come in very handy as well. Without resources to keep their language stimulated, our multilingual children can easily get bored with what is available and will be more inclined to turn toward community language resources (which are so very plentiful!). Find out what interests your child the most and see if family can send over some specific materials – or perhaps you can order some online?

6. Not setting an example: What kind of example are you for your child? Are you using your language as much as possible or are you speaking the community language most of the time with your children (and not even realizing it!)? I can’t tell you the number of parents I talk with who insist that they speak their language with their children ALL the time. But when I visit these same parents, they spend the majority of the time speaking with their children in the community language without even realizing it! Believe me, it is very, very easy to fall into this pattern! You can solve this by (1) being very aware of when you are and are not speaking your language with your children and then (2) switching to your language each time you catch yourself speaking the community language. (3) Ask yourself why you tend to speak the community language with your children as much as you are. If you can find the sources for that question, then you are already one step further along the path toward solving it!

5. Teaching not Living: Raising a child in a minority language is about living the language, not teaching it as if it were another subject in school! You need to live the language and impart that love of the language to your children through your way of life, not choice of language text books. This means speaking it as much as possible: while cooking, driving the car, picking up books at the library, going shopping. Make it part of every element of your every-day life. Make the language magical! Make it sparkle for your children by singing songs and doing dances from your culture, telling fairy tales you grew up with, and sharing stories about your childhood in your home country. Even if it isn’t your native language, you can find unique cultural and linguistic elements to bring into your lives.

4. Enjoyment: Is using a minority language fun for your children or difficult and boring? Are you and your children enjoying using the minority language or has it become drudgery? Make sure you are finding ways to make using the language a joy: play games in the language, chat about fascinating to pics, visit friends and places where the language is spoken. Don’t let yourself get to the point of drilling the language into your children’s heads. That is the best way to make your children hate the language. Many parents in my seminars have told me how their children started using their language after they received a game that was only in the minority language. Not only did the game help encourage language use, it also brought the family together!

3. Consistency (not rigidity): Does your child know who speaks which language and when? Are you going back and forth, speaking different languages randomly? It isn’t the end of the world if you don’t have a perfectly consistent language pattern (and switching languages back and forth isn’t a crime) but a clear plan will make your language journey so much easier. Ultimately, your young child wants to please you and she can do this best if it is clear what is expected of her. If your child is confused or frustrated by not knowing what is expected, then it is very likely that she will simply stop speaking the language. But watch out! Don’t let your consistency plan turn into a rigidity plan! You need to make sure that your plan is serving you, not trapping you! You are allowed to change your plan whenever needed but if you do, make sure to meet as a family to decide on what the new plan will be. Then give the new plan some time to be fully implemented and assessed.

2. Need: Why should your child use his minority language? If your child can get everything he needs via the community language, then there is really no NEED to use the minority language. A need can come in the form of many different things: to play a game, to speak with others who only speak the minority language (family, travel to another country), to understand a book or DVD in the minority language, to get something that he wants. Some parents go as far as to refuse to answer their child unless the question is in the minority language. I never did this with my kids but for some families it works well. This is where you will have to be creative based on what resources you have available (Can you hire a nanny who only speaks the language? Can you travel to a country where the language is spoken?). Need can come in the form of that which is most familiar: a child often will speak the minority language with parents simply out of habit (it would feel too strange if they didn’t)! Remember that each child is different so a need for one child may be very different for another. Get creative!

1. Not Enough Exposure: Are your children exposed to their minority language a minimum of 30 percent of the time (on average)? Note that this is not a magical number. It will not guarantee multilingualism in your child! This is simply a general number which a group of researchers have come up with to determine what the minimum amount of language exposure appears to be to reach basic multilingualism. 50 percent? 80 percent? Wonderful! The chances are so much better for bi/multilingualism with exposure like that!

When it comes to the amount of language exposure, use your common sense with this. If the spouse who speaks your child’s minority language is working 40 hours a week, then it is going to be much more difficult for your children to receive enough exposure than if the native-speaking spouse is with the children all day. You may need to find additional ways that your child can receive language exposure to reach an average of 30 percent: a nanny, friends, family.
And remember, if your child receives less than 30 percent exposure, that is no reason to give up! Sometimes less exposure can have more of an impact than we know! Just allow yourself to adjust your expectations to match your family’s language journey and see where you can add more language exposure along the way. The gift of language is priceless, no matter how much language exposure your child receives!

These are just a few of the main obstacles to your child wanting to speak the minority language. There are so many more! Please share your ideas and tips on getting your children to speak their minority language! You are a wealth of valuable information, I can’t wait to hear!

By Corey Heller

Jemima Khan called Galloway a Muslim in an article for the New Statesman

Ms Khan, who interviewed the MP in his new constituency, which has a large Muslim community, starts the article: “George Galloway, MP for Bradford West, is a Muslim.

“He converted more than ten years ago in a ceremony at a hotel in Kilburn, north-west London, attended by members of the Muslim Association of Great Britain.

PARIS – Criticizing the anti-Islam rhetoric played by presidential aspirants to win votes, prominent Swiss Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan has urged French politicians to work to unite their country.

“Instead of talking about halal meat, the burka, national identity and dividing France, you should unite it,” Ramadan told a packed hall at the annual Muslim conference Le Bourget, organized by the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF).

Part 1

Part 2 – A

Part 2 – B

This presentation is intended to be educational and thought provoking. Mercy Slaughter LLC’s goal is to motivate the viewer to examine and review the teachings and other authoritative materials on which the viewer’s opinions, practices, and procedures regarding halal meat are based and, where appropriate, to implement changes to his opinions, practices, or procedures.

Copyright ©

All rights reserved.

The Following Presentation Has Been Authored and Published by MERCY SLAUGHTER LLC,
Narrated by Sam Kouka
Managing Member Mercy Slaughter LLC.