Tension rose in the Savile Town in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, when a young lad was arrested in the wake of the 7/7 attacks in the British capital London.

“We faced a major problem here after the 7/7 bombings,” Muslim officer Mohamed Aziz writes in the Times on Tuesday, July 8.

“I had to be a bridge and communicate between the police and the community.”

Aziz, the community police officer in Savile Town, says the town turned tense following reports that one of the bombers from the 7/7 attacks had attended a mosque in Savile Town.

“A young lad from the area was arrested,” recalls Aziz.

“The counter-terrorism unit cordoned off streets around Savile Town - people had restricted access to the streets and this went on for about a week. There were a lot of irate people.

“The international media descended on Savile Town and were intruding in people’s lives, so it was a very nervous time.”

Then, the Muslim officer stepped in to defuse tension and ease concerns of the Muslim community in the area.

“I spoke to the imams and committees of the mosques, who then put messages out on their broadcasts.

“Luckily for us, nothing got out of hand and the police controlled it pretty well with the help of the community.”

In appreciation of his role, Aziz was awarded the Community Police Officer of the Year prize in 2007 for his work on easing tensions in Savile Town.

Muslim Cop

Aziz says being Muslim and Asian background has given him an advantage in dealing with crises facing the Muslim community in Savile Town.

“We’ve also had to deal with a major incident where a teaching assistant at a school in Savile Town refused to remove her veil,” he recalls.

“I had to mediate between the media, who were camping outside, the school and the parents.”

The Muslim officer says he is now more of an outreach worker than an officer.

“I work with schools, colleges and local community centers, trying to build confidence and trust, looking into why these things happen with some of these young guys, and trying to prevent it.”

Britain is home to a sizable multi-ethnic Muslim minority of nearly 2 million.

The vast majority of British Muslims have Pakistani and Bengali backgrounds.

Since the 7/7 attacks, which killed 56 commuters including 4 Muslim bombers, British Muslims have complained of a growing Islamophobic climate in the European country.

A Financial Times opinion poll has showed recently that Britain is the most suspicious nation about Muslims.

For Aziz, being a British Muslim policeman is a double-edged sword.

“I know how they feel when they say it’s our culture and our religion that people are attacking,” he explains.

“But from my perspective, I have to be professional about it all as well.”

Aziz gives credit to his religions and multicultural background for being the driving force behind his success.

“I feel that I have a good understanding of the culture and the religion in the community.

“That’s been more helpful than anything else.”

By  IOL Staff

Channel 4’s film and pamphlet warn that 7/7 attacks have fuelled the rise of violence, intolerance and hatred against Muslims. CAIRO — From vilification in media to harassment by far-right politicians and even verbal and physical attacks, welcome to post 7/7 Britain where Muslims are the target, a new documentary on Britain’s Channel 4 reveals.“Islamophobia is a tremendous force for unification in British public culture,” journalist Peter Oborne and political commentator James Jones write in the pamphlet “Muslims under Siege” that accompanies their documentary for Channel 4. “Its appeal is wide-ranging. Adherents can be found among ardent churchgoers and militant atheists.” The program, “It should not happen to a Muslim,” was aired on Monday July 7, to commemorate the anniversary of the July 2005 tube and bus bombings in London. The film and the accompanying pamphlet warn that these attacks have fuelled the rise of violence, intolerance and hatred against British Muslims. “Islamophobia… has increased after both the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist outrages that have clearly created a deeper resentment and fear of British Muslims than existed before.” Both the documentary and the pamphlet highlight the rise in physical and verbal attacks on Muslims ever over the past few years. “Physical attacks are the manifestation of a growing anti-Muslim sentiment,” the pamphlet says. “For many in the Muslim community, Britain is becoming a very frightening place.” Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2 million. Since the 7/7 attacks, which killed 56 commuters including 4 Muslim bombers, British Muslims have complained of a growing Islamophobic climate in the European country. A Financial Times opinion poll has showed recently that Britain is the most suspicious nation about Muslims. Shameful Media     Oborne and Jones found that the most obvious sector where Muslims are routinely vilified is the media.   The documentary and the pamphlet found  that the most obvious sector where Muslims are routinely vilified is the media. “How easy it is to create misleading and exaggerated stories about Islam and Muslims and get them published,” the pamphlet says. “It will demonstrate how it is permissible to invidiously single out Muslims in newspaper headlines in a way that would be unthinkable in any other minority, except perhaps paedophiles.” Oborne and Jones said that by studying some 974 stories in all mainstream newspapers that covered Islam over eight years from 2000, they found that nearly 60 percent talks about Muslim terrorism, religious issues and cultural differences. “These stories all portrayed Muslims as a source of trouble,” they said. “By contrast only 5 per cent of stories were based on problems facing British Muslims.” The writers highlight a particular story published by The Sun tabloid in October 2006, which described in detail how a “Muslim hate mob” the vandalized a house of British war heroes. “But there was one very big problem with The Sun story. There was no Muslim involvement of any kind. “What the Sun had done was to take a local story about a piece of vandalism, probably caused by local snobbery… and convert it into another kind of story altogether about evil Muslims.” The journalists say the tabloid’s case “is far from unique.” They affirm that while preparing the documentary, they discovered this is typical of reporting of Muslims across large parts of the mainstream British media. “It can be encountered in the best circles: among our most famous novelists, among columnists from the Independent and Guardian newspapers.” “I am an Islamophobe, and proud of it,” writes Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee in the Independent. “Islamophobia?” the Sunday Times columnist Rod Liddle asks in the title of an article. “Count me in.” Far-Rightists The film and the report also reveal that Muslims are the new target group of extreme-right politicians. “The far right in British politics has turned away from Jews and blacks, its traditional targets, and shifted its focus onto Muslims instead.” Oborne and Jones added that the far-right, whites-only British National party (BNP) is now using the Islamophobia card to win support among the society. “If they are to make the move to mainstream respectability, they need an issue that allows them to exploit people’s fears about immigrants and Britain’s ethnic minority communities without being branded racist extremists. “They have found that issue,” they said. “The BNP has gone all out to tap into a rich vein of anti-Muslim sentiment. “BNP members are more likely to focus on terrorism, the evils of Islam, and scare stories of Britain becoming an Islamic state.” The journalists end their investigation emphasizing the need to change the public culture regarding Muslims. “We think we should all feel a little bit ashamed about the way we treat Muslims in the media, in our politics, and on our streets. “They are our fellow citizens, yet often we barely acknowledge them. We misrepresent them and in certain cases we persecute them. “We do not treat Muslims with the tolerance, decency and fairness that we so often like to boast is the British way.”

Source: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1213871653413&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout

GENEVA — Switzerland will hold a nationwide referendum on banning the construction of minarets, towers attached to mosques, despite opposition from churches and the government.

“[Minarets] symbolized a political-religious claim to power, which challenges fundamental rights,” said the committee spearheading an initiative to ban the minarets construction in Switzerland, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday, July 8.

“One which, as it is the case in Islam, places religion above the state, and which completely contradicts the federal constitution.”

The committee, led by the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP), has collected nearly 115,000 signatures; enough to force a nationwide vote on the minarets ban.

Under Swiss law, the electorate can request a popular vote if it manages to collect 100,000 signatures within 18 months from eligible voters for the initiative.

No date has been set for the referendum.

If it is approved, the Swiss parliament must pass a law enshrining a construction ban in the constitution.

The SVP, which campaigns to protect Christian values and Swiss traditions from strange cultures, claimed that minarets are a symbol of power and threaten law and order in Switzerland.

There are currently only two minarets in Switzerland, in both Zurich and Geneva.

The Muslim call to prayer is not raised from these minarets.

Last November, the Administrative Court in the canton of Solothurn upheld a project to build a mosque with a minaret in the northern town of Wangen.

It ruled that plans to add a six-meter minaret to a prayer center respected existing and relevant laws.

Violation

The minaret ban has drawn fire from Swiss churches and the government.

“Polarization is a bad thing,” said the Federation of Churches in Switzerland.

“We should be working on integration.”

The ruling Federal Council urged voters to reject the minaret ban.

It would “without a doubt be recommending that parliament and the electorate vote against the initiative,” it said in a statement.

The Council said that the initiative did not originate from the government or the parliament but that it was “launched by a group of private individuals”.

President Pascal Couchepin said the government will recommend that voters reject the proposed ban.

Several other members of Switzerland’s cross-party government have already spoken out against the ban.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said that the government would oppose the text as it went against the constitution.

Former federal judge Giusep Nay had also appealed to parliament not to allow a popular vote as the initiative violated religious freedom.

There are about 340,000 Muslims in Switzerland, which has a population of 7.4 million.

Forty-three percent of the Muslim minority are of Turkish origin. Islam is the second religion in the country after Christianity.

Source: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1213871677305&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout

Four months ahead of the November presidential vote, American Muslims are complaining of being ignored by the Democratic and Republican candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.

“McCain and Obama are not saying anything about Muslims and Arab Americans,” Jana Musleh, 18, told The Detroit News on Saturday, July 5.

“We are being discriminated against every day.

“They are not saying anything about our issues,” added Musleh, who is working with the nonpartisan Arab American Institute to turn out the Arab vote.

Many Muslims complain that the two presidential contenders shy from meeting Muslim imams publicly, unlike the candidates in the 2000 and 2004 elections.

Neither of the candidates seeks to appear in mosques, despite repeated visits to churches and synagogues.

“I feel like I am in a losing battle,” said Eftikhar Saleh, a teacher at the Star International Academy in Dearborn Heights, a volunteer for the Obama campaign.

“They are so afraid to talk about Islam because they don’t know what to say.

“And they don’t know what the American public will think because there is this overall fear that Islam is somehow a dangerous religion, so they don’t want to go near it.”

There are between six to seven million Muslims in the United States, making up less than three percent of the country’s 300 million population.

A 2007 survey by Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum indicated that attitudes toward Muslims and Islam have grown more negative in recent years.

Outreach

Muslims complain that the White House hopefuls are steering clear of them to avoid any linkage with the sizable minority.

“One of the aspects that contributed to make this a great issue was the unfortunate negative debate that controlled the Democratic Party nomination race,” said Imad Hamad, regional director of American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

“Unfortunately, those who oppose Senator Obama tried to use his race, his national origin, and tried to promote that he has an Arab name and the Muslim faith. Up to this day, they throw it in his face.”

Obama, who describes himself as a proud follower of the Trinity United Church of Christ, has been outspoken in refuting smear campaigns describing him as a Muslim in disguise.

The Illinois senator is the son of a Muslim-turned-atheist Kenyan father and a white American mother that did not practice religion.

Born in Hawaii, he lived from ages 6 to 10 in Indonesia with his mother and Muslim stepfather.

“There’s been a long whisper campaign that Barack Obama is somehow a closet Muslim,” said Michael Fauntroy, an author and professor of public policy at George Mason University.

“Rather than deal with it straight on, he is not going to call any attention to it.”

Last month, Obama’s campaign apologized to two American Muslim women who were barred from sitting behind him at an election rally for wearing hijab.

“And with McCain, he is so closely tied to the Bush administration policies; he is unlikely to get their support,” said Fauntroy.

McCain has angered American Muslims by declining to stop labeling terrorists and extremists as “Islamic”.

The two presidential runners said that they are approaching voters of all backgrounds and faiths.

“Senator Obama is deeply committed to reaching out to people of all backgrounds and faiths who share his commitment to changing America,” said spokesman Dan Leistikow.

The McCain campaign also said the Republican candidate is “talking to all voters.”

“The Muslim American community in Michigan is one of great entrepreneurial spirit made of many small business owners.”

Source: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1213871575350&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout

A New York Times/CBS News poll in 2006 found that 53% of those questioned thought the Bush administration was hiding something. Another US poll found a third of those questioned thought government officials either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or allowed them to happen.

In the UK a survey by the BBC’s The Conspiracy Files, carried out by GfkNOP in 2006, found that 16% of those questioned thought there was a “wider conspiracy that included the American government”.

Nearly seven years after the terrible events of that September day, the US authorities are due to publish the final report on a third tower that also collapsed on 9/11. Unlike the Twin Towers, this 47-storey, 610-foot skyscraper was not hit by a plane.

And Tower 7 has become a key issue for “truthers” like Dylan Avery, the director of the internet film about 9/11 called Loose Change.

“The truth movement is heavily centred on Building 7 and for very good reason a lot of people are very suspicious about what went down that day,” he says.

Avery points out that Tower 7 housed some unusual tenants: the CIA, the Secret Service, the Pentagon and the very agency meant to deal with disasters or terrorist attacks in New York - the Office of Emergency Management. And some people think Tower 7 was the place where a 9/11 conspiracy was hatched.

Avery points out that Tower 7 housed some unusual tenants: the CIA, the Secret Service, the Pentagon and the very agency meant to deal with disasters or terrorist attacks in New York - the Office of Emergency Management. And some people think Tower 7 was the place where a 9/11 conspiracy was hatched.

FIND OUT MORE… The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 - The Third Tower is on BBC Two on Sunday 6 July at 2100 BST Visit The Conspiracy Files website or catch up using the iPlayer

The official explanation is that ordinary fires were the main reason for the collapse of Tower 7. That makes this the first and only tall skyscraper in the world to have collapsed because of fire. Yet despite that all the thousands of tonnes of steel from the building were carted away and melted down.

The way official bodies have investigated Tower 7 at the World Trade Center has made some people think they’re hiding something. Its destruction was never mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report.

An inquiry by the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the building collapsed because intense fires had burned for hours, fed by thousands of gallons of diesel stored in the building for emergency generators. But its report said this had “only a low probability of occurrence” and more work was needed. That was in May 2002.

Conspiracy Files: Collapse of WTC 7

The task has now fallen to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) based at a sprawling campus near Washington DC. For more than two-and-a-half years, scientists there have been studying Tower 7.

Inevitably the officials have been criticised for being slow and even of being frightened to publish.

But the lead investigator at NIST, who heads up their World Trade Center inquiry, Dr Shyam Sunder, says that two-and-a-half years is typically how long an aeroplane crash investigation takes. He added that only in the last few years did they begin to hear criticism from the “truth” movement.

“It’s only at the very end in 2005 that this group became more vocal and we found them coming to some of our meetings. But for a long time they were not even present. It wasn’t the delay that really caused them, they just woke up one morning and decided to take this on as an issue.”

Soul searching

In April 2005, the first thousand DVDs of Dylan Avery’s Loose Change movie were pressed. It cost just $2,000 to make. It was a critical moment for the development of the movement. The makers of Loose Change claim it has now been viewed by more than a hundred million people.

Steven Jones, a former physics professor at Brigham Young University, who has become the leading academic voice in the movement, first watched a video of the collapse of Tower 7 in the spring of 2005. But when he did, he said he was taken aback as a physicist.

Will the theories ever be laid to rest?

The American architect Richard Gage’s conversion came in 2006 when driving along he heard an independent radio station interviewing the theologian David Ray Griffin.

“I had to do some real soul searching and some research. And the more I discovered the more disturbed I became and realized I was looking for… the architects and the engineers.”

Finding that they hadn’t really entered the fray by then, Gage decided he had to act.

“It just came to me, I had to start an organization Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.”

The fifth anniversary of 9/11 was a huge moment for “truthers”. Under the media spotlight protests intensified, websites were spawned and internet films proliferated.

With the publicity also came the “debunkers”, challenging the “truthers” at every stage.

After Loose Change came a website called Screw Loose Change. And internet film 9/11 Mysteries was followed by Screw 9/11 Mysteries.

Conspiracy splits

And the “truthers” have fought back. When the US technology magazine Popular Mechanics launched a book called Debunking 9/11 Myths, it was countered with a book by David Ray Griffin called Debunking 9/11 Debunking.

Over time the scale of the alleged conspiracy has grown and grown, encompassing not just sections of the Bush administration, intelligence, but also the fire service, the police, first responders, official investigators, experts, the building’s owner, and the media, and, oh yes, even the BBC.

George Bush is hiding something, says the 9/11 truth movement

And over time schisms have opened up in the 9/11 “truth” movement.

So-called “no-planers” believe that commercial aeroplanes did not actually crash into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon or a field in Pennsylvania. Some have suggested lasers from outer space were used.

“Planers” believe aeroplanes were used but argue that only controlled demolitions can explain the collapses of the World Trade Center towers.

Then there are the LIHOPs and MIHOPs. Most “truthers” are MIHOPs - they think the government Made It Happen On Purpose, planning and orchestrating the 9/11 attacks.

But LIHOPs believe the government just Let It Happen On Purpose, to allow them to justify wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a clampdown on civil liberties.

Into this febrile atmosphere comes the final official report on 9/11.

This summer we will find out whether NIST’s report has answered the many questions that have been raised, or whether it will suffer the same fate as the Warren Commission on the assassination of President John F Kennedy and merely add fuel to the conspiracy theories.

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Add your comments on this story, using the form below.

Once again lines are being drawn by the use of language in this article. It seems any active questioning of events or suggestions of more feasible explanations are lumped into the category of ‘conspiracy theory.’ This language unjustly places people into separate camps - those who accept the official story and those who do not. If there are incongruous facts presented to explain these important historical events then we all must question them surely? Does that make us conspiracy theorists? In my opinion this label is too convenient and distracts from any real discourse. I do on the other hand appreciate the presentation of some of the aforementioned incongruous facts relating to Tower 7.
Seth Mowshowitz, London, UK

You wrote: “The official explanation is that ordinary fires were the main reason for the collapse of Tower 7. That makes this the first and only tall skyscraper in the world to have collapsed because of fire. ”

What you wrote is blatantly untrue, and symptomatic of the problem. The building, while not hit by a plane, was severely damaged by the collapse of the twin towers. There is plenty of photographic evidence of this, but then most conspiracy theorists, like yourselves, obviously haven’t looked.
Greg Heywood, Wellingborough

I don’t think the US govt. is any cleverer than the British one, which can’t manage to put in place simple workable systems for taxes, student loans, child support agency, NHS, National Insurance, etc. What makes anyone think they could actually manage a big, unwieldy, secret conspiracy like the one there’d have needed to be for 9/11? Come on, folks - what happened, happened. Simple as that.
Joan Bee, England

Your article doesn’t mention the context in which the BBC is accused of being part of the cover-up. Is this the issue of the BBC reporting that building 7 had been destroyed due to fire damage before the building had actually collapsed? Then claiming that the tapes from this time ‘were missing’, refusing to reveal the source of this information or explain how they knew the building was going to collapse before it did? I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I haven’t written my own solution to unanswered questions. I (like many others) just want to know the truth.
Richard, Birmingham

One has to consider the chain of command were this a government-sponsored act. The sheer number of complicit parties needed would make this impossible without someone having been taken over by the enormity of it and blown the whistle. Conspiracies of silence and lone voices being polished off by the secret services only happpen in Hollywood movies, folks. I guess some people must really struggle to tell the difference between films and real life.

I’m utterly convinced that 9/11 was a tragic day for mankind in which thousands of peple lost their lives because of an audacious and fortuitous terrorist attack, perpetrated by a well-prepared a committed small group.
Jon, Chelmsford

 Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7488159.stm#link

More related links: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=gmail&q=Screw%209%2F11%20Mysteries 

Britain’s most senior judge has suggested that Islamic Shari`ah could play a role in the British legal system, echoing a similar stance by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, reported the Guardian on Friday, July 4.

“There is no reason why principles of Shari`ah law, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution,” Lord Chief Justice Lord Nicholas Phillips said in a speech to the London Islamic Council.

“It must be recognized however that any sanctions for a failure to comply with the agreed terms of the mediation would be drawn from the laws of England and Wales.”

Phillips, the most senior judge in England and Wales, said parties to a dispute are free to agree to accept Shari`ah principles or other religious precepts if they decide to seek mediation.

“So far as the law is concerned, those who live in this country are governed by English and Welsh law and subject to the jurisdiction of English and Welsh courts.”

Under British law, people may devise their own way to settle a dispute in front of an agreed third party, such as Shari`ah courts and the Jewish Beth Din, as long as both sides agree to the process.

The rulings of Shari`ah courts, however, are not recognized by the law and thus Muslims, estimated at nearly 2 million, would have to seek settling their disputes through civil courts.

Misunderstood

The Lord Chief Justice said that the Islamic Shari`ah has been widely misunderstood.

“Part of the misconception about Shari`ah law is the belief that Shari`ah is only about mandating sanctions such as flogging, stoning, the cutting off of hands or death for those fail to comply with the law.

“In some countries the courts interpret Shari`ah law as calling for severe physical punishment. There can be no question of such courts sitting in this country, or such sanctions being applied here.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams recently recommended that British law should recognize some aspects of Shari`ah to resolve Muslim civil matters.

His remarks ignited an extraordinary political and religious storm that still rages on, with politicians united in denouncing the proposal.

Leading newspapers and tabloids launched vitriolic campaigns against the spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans, some even calling for his resignation.

The Lord Chief Justice defended Williams’ Shari`ah law comments.

“It was not very radical to advocate embracing Shari`ah law in the context of family disputes, for example, and our system already goes a long way towards accommodating the archbishop’s suggestion.

“It is possible in this country for those who are entering into a contractual agreement to agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.”

“So a Muslim woman who divorced according to Shari`ah principles would be free to marry again, but not if she only went to a civil court.

“But as far as aspects of matrimonial law are concerned, there is a limited precedent for English law to recognize aspects of religious laws, although when it comes to divorce this can only be effected in accordance with the civil law of this country.”

The Lord Chief Justice’s comments drew applause from Muslim leaders.

“[Phillips] is talking about provisions that are already out there for mediation and conflict resolution,” said Usama Hasan, imam at Al-Tawhid Mosque, Leyton, and an adviser to the Islamic Shari`ah Council.

“Muslim couples would prefer to have their personal disputes to be settled by a Shari`ah scholar because such a ruling would affect their status.

“Aspects of Jewish divorce law have long been part of English law and it seems reasonable for Muslims to have the same treatment, but it can’t lead to inequality or a splintering of British society.”

Source: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1213871553142&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout

By  Dina Rabie, IOL Staff

An Israeli Jewish professor has authored a book and is planning a website that uses verses from the Noble Qur’an as a guide to address problems faced by educational counselors, a move met with suspicion from Muslim scholars.

“The Quranet project is a proposal for a website that will appear in different languages that are spoken throughout the Muslim world,” Professor Ofer Grosbard, clinical psychologist at the University of Haifa, told IslamOnline.net in an interview.

“Quranet reveals the beauty of the Qur’an and its respect for human dignity.

“It can serve any Muslim teacher or parent in the world.”  

Grosbard’s website, a demo of it has been published on the Israeli Foreign Ministry, will include verses of the Noble Qur’an to tackle problems faced by guidance counselors.

“The verse is followed by a story to demonstrate how it applies to everyday life, illustrating how the verse can be utilized to convey a message to the child,” he said.

The Israeli professor came up with the Quranet idea last year while tutoring a course to a group of Bedouin graduate students of educational counseling.

Grosbard was approached by one of his student saying that the Qur’an would have a much more powerful impact when it comes to counseling psychological problems.

“When I asked her to explain, she said that, in the appropriate context, quotation of a verse from the Qur’an has enormous impact on Muslims.”

Grosbard then brought a copy of the Qur’an to the next class and asked his students to identify verses that were related to the types of problems they expect to face.

The students returned with a list of 300 verses that focus on issues such as taking responsibility, respecting others, and telling the truth.

Grosbard then asked the students to make up stories based on these verses. He later added a short psychological-education explanation to each story.

The outcome was a 600-page Hebrew manuscript published in a book in May, addressing 330 questions on issues such as violence, mourning, incest, adolescence, etc.

“That was how Quranet came into being,” said Grosbard, who is now planning to translate the book into Arabic and English and upload the texts onto an interactive website.

Suspicion 

Grosbard’s project has already been met with suspicion in the Muslim world.

“Israel wants to lure Muslims into its trap by interpreting the Qur’an in a way that suits Israeli projects,” Sheikh Shawqi Abdel-Latif of the Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) has told Al-Masri Al-Youm newspaper.

Dr. Manae Abdel-Halim Mahmoud, professor of Qur’anic sciences at Al-Azhar University, also blasted the Israeli project.

“Israel only harbors enmity to Islam and Muslims,” he said.

“This project aims to tarnish the image of Islam by giving wrong interpretation of the Noble Qur’an.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs also rejected the project, saying there was no reason to re-interpret the Qur’an into Hebrew as the Holy Book has been interpreted correctly many times before.

Source: www.islamonline.net

AMMAN —Only a day after the Dutch prosecution declined to prosecute far-right MP Geert Wilders, Jordan’s justice authorities charged Wilders on Tuesday, July 1, with blasphemy and violation of publishing laws for his offensive anti-Qur’an film.

“Wilders has been summoned to appear before the court,” Tarek Hawamdeh, a lawyer for a group of some 30 Jordanian media outlets which filed a lawsuit with the Amman prosecutor against Wilders, told Agence France Presse (AFP).

“He will be given 15 days to comply, otherwise, an arrest warrant might be issued through the Interpol.”

“The Messenger of God Unites Us”, a coalition of 40 media outlets, filed the lawsuit seeking court action against the Dutch MP last June over his recent anti-Qur’an documentary “Fitna”.

The lawsuit was based on the film’s violation of Jordan’s publishing laws which ban insults against religions and attacks against Islam and the prophets.

The charges also include blasphemy and contempt of Muslims, according to Hawamdeh.

Jordanian prosecutor Judge Abdallat has already issued an order through the Dutch embassy in Amman to bring Wilders to stand trial.

“Punishment could be up to three years in jail,” affirmed Hawamdeh.

Wilders, a far-right lawmaker, has released a documentary entitled “Fitna,” an Arabic word for sedition or strife, on the internet last March.

The 15-minute documentary accuses Qur’an of inciting violence and intersperses images of terror attacks with verses from the Noble Qur’an.

On Monday, Amsterdam’s Public Prosecutors announced that Wilders will not be charged for inciting hatred with his offensive film.

The prosecution said that Wilders’ actions, though “hurtful and offensive”, were allowable under Dutch law and did not give rise to a punishable offence.

“Nursing Grudge “

The Jordanian move came as the world’s biggest Muslim body expressed frustration over the Dutch prosecution’s decision over Wilders’ film.

“The act of the Dutch Public Prosecutor to drop the charges against the producer of the film ‘Fitna’ is tantamount to encouraging irresponsible media persecution, and nursing grudge against Muslims,” the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Riyadh-based 57-nation body said it was “deeply annoyed” that the Dutch prosecutors said Wilders was protected by the right to free speech.

“In so doing, the Dutch Public Prosecutor seems to ignore the fine line of ‘responsibility’ separating the freedom of expression from incitement to hatred.

“The decision … encourages and supports the irresponsible defamatory style followed by some media outlets and instigates feelings of hatred, animosity and antipathy towards Muslims.”

The OIC added that the Netherlands’ conduct over the crisis is not conducive to facilitating dialogue or reaching understanding on sensitive issues.

Wilders’ documentary has sparked fury among Muslims worldwide, with rallies staged in several Muslim capitals.

It has also triggered calls for boycotts of Dutch products in some Muslim countries.

Source: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1213871479519&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout

Madinah – Jamad Al Akher 26 1429/ June 30, 2008 – Dr. Mohammad Al Oqla, director of the Islamic University in Madinah, announced that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz has granted his endorsement to the university to hold an international conference against terrorism. Several key figures, including leading Islamic scholars, thinkers and intellectuals from various parts of the world will be invited. Dr. Al Oqla told reporters that the conference “is aimed at spreading the values of mutual understanding and a spirit of tolerance, and promoting a culture of dialogue and peaceful coexistence.” The Madinah conference is aimed at exerting efforts to root out terrorism as well as to drain its financial sources, said Dr. Al Oqla.
The conference is also part of Saudi Arabia’s initiative to tackle the malicious campaign being waged against Islam, its Prophet (peace be upon him) and its holy book, he said, adding that there will be a serious attempt to present the true picture of Islam and Muslims. The Makkah-based Muslim World League (MWL) is also holding a global interfaith dialogue conference in Madrid next month. The MWL has extended invitations to some 200 prominent religious figures representing Islam, Christianity and Judaism from around the world to attend the conference, slated for July 16-18. The call for a dialogue conference was made by King Abdullah after he won the backing of leading Islamic scholars from around the world at the International Islamic Dialogue Conference in Makkah this month.
The Kingdom is making every effort to address religious extremism and deviant thoughts through analyzing the position of Islam, which is a religion of moderation and tolerance, Dr. Muhammad Al Oqla said. “The Madinah conference will be a serious initiative in this regard. The conference is aimed at exerting all efforts to address this problem intellectually together with security operation to root out terrorism as well as to drain its financial sources. “The conference will highlight the moderate stance taken by Islam on all issues and will counter effectively the wrong notion of linking Islam with terrorism,” he said.
HA/IINA

Source: http://www.islamicnews.org.sa/en/1.php