from Tales from the Trail:
Obama hosts Iftar dinner marking Ramadan
Three dozen foreign diplomats, two Muslim American members of Congress and some 9/11 families were among the guests invited to join President Barack Obama for what has become a White House tradition -- an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan.
"Tonight is part of a rich tradition here at the White House of celebrating the holy days of many faiths and the diversity that define us as a nation," Obama said in his welcome remarks.
"Like so many faiths, Islam has always been part of our American family, and Muslim Americans have long contributed to the strength and character of our country, in all walks of life. This has been especially true over the past 10 years," Obama said.
The president said Ramadan was a time for reflection for Muslims and noted that this year it fell near the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Obama recognized Muslim Americans who died in the attacks, others who responded in the aftermath and members of the military fighting in the wars that followed.
"In one month, we will mark the 10th anniversary of those awful attacks that brought so much pain to our hearts," Obama said. "It will be a time to honor all those that we've lost. And tonight, it's worth remembering that these Americans were of many faiths and backgrounds, including proud and patriotic Muslim Americans," Obama said.
This was Obama's third Iftar dinner at the White House. Former President Bill Clinton started the tradition of hosting an Iftar dinner which was continued under President George W. Bush.
Mecca hopes to revive pilgrim tourism during haj
Rashed Abdullah displays Oriental perfumes on a glass table to late-night shoppers in his small shop in Mecca ready for what he hopes will be a sales bonanza during this month’s haj pilgrimage. He is confident of attracting customers after fears of a swine flu outbreak kept many away last year.
“This year will be the best. There is really strong demand,” he said, standing behind an incense collection in one of dozens souvenir shops around the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
Business has picked up in Islam’s holiest city since Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month which fell in August and September when many visit Mecca. In 2009, the number of pilgrims fell to about 2.5 million but a record 4 million are expected next week when the haj begins.
While last year hotels had trouble filling rooms in Mecca and the nearby port city of Jeddah, where most arrive by air, this year hotels are almost entirely fully booked.
“People are really interested and everyone is trying to make up for last year … things will be much better this year,” said Walid Abu Sabaa, head of the tourism and hotels committee at the Mecca chamber of commerce.
Algerian court clears Christians of charge of flouting Ramadan by eating during day
Two Christian men on trial in Algeria for eating during daylight in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan were acquitted on Tuesday, a verdict their supporters said was a triumph for religious freedom.
The two men, members of Algeria’s small Protestant community, were charged with offending public morals for eating at the building site where they were working before the Ramadan fast had been broken for the day.
After the judge in the small town of Ain El-Hammam, about 150 km (93.21 miles) east of the Algerian capital, ruled they were innocent, a group of about seven Protestants standing on the steps of the courthouse shouted “Hallelujah!”
This article on Slate.fr says Algeria is clamping down on Muslims who do not fast during Ramadan. A local newspaper, Le Quotidien d’Oran, has an op-ed piece (from a writer in Paris) calling for the freedom to fast or not. A group called Mali in neighbouring Morocco has a Facebook page in French where it argues that human rights include the right to eat during Ramadan in a Muslim country.
In another Ramadan case, two women in Indonesia’s Aceh province were caned for selling food during daylight hours in the month.
Malaysia TV station axes Muslim ad because of Christmas overtones
(Photo: Screengrab from TV3 commercial on YouTube)
A Malaysian television station has axed a commercial for an important Muslim holiday after viewers complained that it looked more like a promotion for Christmas. State-linked TV3 aired the commercial earlier this month to wish the country’s dominant ethnic Malay-Muslims a joyous Eid al-Fitr, which is likely to fall on Friday and marks the end of a month-long Ramadan fast.
The advert shows an avuncular white-haired man taking children to a fantasy land aboard a flying trishaw, drawing complaints from Muslim viewers that it resembled Santa Claus and his sleigh. TV3′s news anchors apologised on Sunday’s prime time news broadcast, saying the station had stopped airing the clip — which stirred a storm on the Malaysian blogosphere with numerous postings lambasting what was seen as an insenstive move by a government-linked company. TV3 officials could not be reached for comment.
Malaysia’s government has struggled to balance relations between Muslims, who make up a majority of the country’s 28 million people, and minority Hindus, Christians and Buddhists who complain of growing religious intolerance.
Here’s the commercial (in Malay):
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Maybe a flying carpet would have been more appropriate. The flower should have been our national red hibiscus!! But to me it seemed more like ET flying around using our local trishaw around our nation.
Take it in your stride TV3 – IT takes all kinds of people to make this nation great. Brave of you to appologise and move on.
Christian-themed TV shows spark complaints in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon
Television shows with Christian themes have sparked complaints in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon in recent days, but from different groups and for different reasons.
In Saudi Arabia, a popular sitcom has drawn the ire of conservative clerics over an episode portraying Arab Christians in a positive light after the kingdom sought to sell itself as a leader of dialogue between faiths.
A two-part episode of the sitcom “Tash Ma Tash,” which has aired during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan for 17 years, showed the two main Saudi characters, both Muslims, being advised by their dying father to visit the brother of their deceased Lebanese mother.
After a tearful reunion, the pair discover their mother’s relatives were Christians and their Uncle Boutros was a priest. Despite their initial shock, the brothers slowly come to respect their uncle’s Christianity, although they try to convert him to Islam and give him a Koran.
Some Saudi clerics were not impressed. “A Muslim is allowed to praise only the one true religion — Islam,” said Eissa al-Ghaith, a judge at the Justice Ministry, in remarks carried by al-Madina newspaper on Sunday.
In Lebanon, two Muslim channels, including Hezbollah’s al-Manar television, said on Friday they had stopped airing a series depicting the life of Jesus after complaints from Christians. Al-Manar and NBN television said they had selected the series to show during Ramadan, but had “decided to stop airing it … to prevent any attempt to use it in a negative way.”
VIDEO: Roundup of Ramadan starting in Turkey, Asia, Afghanistan
Below is a Reuters video roundup of the start of Ramadan in Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Afghanistan:
Pakistanis start Ramadan fasting month amid flood misery
They’ve been left homeless and hungry by the worst flooding in decades, but for many Pakistanis, their suffering is no reason to ignore Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that began in their country on Thursday.
Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rain over much of Pakistan began nearly two weeks ago, and have killed about 1,600 people and disrupted the lives of about 14 million, including about two million who have been forced from their homes.
Many survivors from flooded villages have lost their stores of food as well as crops in the field and livestock, and are surviving on occasional handouts, living in the open.
But despite the hunger and hardship, for most people not observing the fast during the most sacred of months is unthinkable.
“We will fast but we don’t know how will be break the fast, whether we will find any food or not. Only Allah knows,” said Nusrat Shah, sitting beside a bridge in Sukkur, where she had laid out bedding for her family under the sky.
Mecca Mean Time? World’s biggest clock ticks in Islam’s holiest city
A giant clock on a skyscraper in Islam’s holiest city Mecca began ticking on Wednesday at the start of the fasting month of Ramadan, amid hopes by Saudi Arabia that it will become the Muslim world’s official timekeeper.
The Mecca Clock, which Riyadh says is the world’s largest, has four faces each bearing a large inscription of the name “Allah.” It sits 400 metres up what will be the world’s second-tallest skyscraper and largest hotel, overlooking the city’s Holy Grand Mosque, which Muslims around the world turn to five times a day for prayer.
The clock tower is the landmark feature of the seven-tower King Abdulaziz Endowment hotel complex, being built by the private Saudi Binladen Group. “Because it based in front of the holy mosque the whole Islamic world will refer to Mecca time instead of Greenwich. The Mecca clock will become a symbol to all Muslims,” said Hashim Adnan, a resident of nearby Jeddah who frequently visits Mecca.
While many in Saudi Arabia are celebrating the clock tower’s launch, some Mecca visitors are critical of how it will affect the ambiance of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthplace.
no sori my friend no 1 r poor rich is poor poor is rich i think that
and the 2sd news is an other clock tower is going 2 come in jeddah i read the news in paper and i m working in the same tower my hotel name is rotana al marwa rayaahan
Stock markets in Muslim countries usually rally during Ramadan-study
Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar marked with fasting and prayer, is also an uplifting time for stock markets in predominantly Muslim countries, according to a study by the University of New Hampshire.
Stock markets in Oman, Turkey, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia generated average returns of 38 percent during the month of Ramadan over the years 1989 through 2007, according to the report, compared with their average 4.3 percent returns the rest of the year.
Observance of Ramadan this year is expected to start on or about Aug. 11 and finish on or about Sept. 10.
“The implication of our find for investors is obvious,” Ahmad Etebari, a University of New Hampshire professor of finance who was lead researcher on the study. “Investors seeking fast profits in the Muslim world should try to profit from the fast.”
from Pakistan: Now or Never?:
In Pakistan, not over the moon
By Zeeshan Haider
Pakistan is battling Taliban militants, trying to patch up relations with old rival India and struggling to revive a limping economy but another issue has preoccupied the country over recent days: the sighting of the moon that markes the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
A row erupted when the Eid al Fitr holiday that follows Ramadan was celebrated in several parts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Sunday, a day ahead of the rest of the country. Many Pakistanis say that violated a spirit of harmony and unity that should mark one of the most important events of the Islamic calender.
Some clerics in NWFP announced on Saturday evening that the crescent moon, which marks the end of a month in Islam's lunar calender, had been sighted, meaning Ramadan was over and Eid would be celebrated the next day. But a government-appointed body of clerics responsible for moon-sighting rejected the announcement, citing reports from the Meteorological Department that said the moon could not be seen on Saturday.
Clerics in NWFP, a religiously conservative region on the Afghan border dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, have called Eid early before but this time the politicians jumped into the fray. The Awami National Party (ANP), a secular party ruling NWFP which is also part of the federal coalition, backed the clerics from its province who called Eid early.
Analysts say the ANP's stand could be a aimed at winning the support of conservative Pashtuns.
China sells a white elephant to Nigeria
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/772695 1.stm
And the Story repeats again in Pakistan …
Pakistan, China agree to develop new satellite
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009- 09/18/content_8710746.htm
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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Didn’t even take “actual” taxpayer an hour to pop up with his nativist tripe