The flight with 332 passengers took off at 3:30pm yesterday from Lanzhou

The flight with 332 passengers took off at 3:30pm yesterday from Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, marking the start of Chinese Muslims' pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia this year.Until November 18, about 12,700 Muslims will go to the holy city in 41 chartered flights from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions, Gansu, southwest China's Yunnan Province and Beijing.The number of pilgrims is 700 more than last year.Male Muslims wore gray robes and white hats, while the women were in traditional scarves and blue vests. Each of them had a symbol of China's national flag embroidered on their clothes.As average age of the Muslims was 60 and they lacked experience in traveling abroad, training programs had been offered before their departure, said Xiao Yuchuan, head of the Gansu religion bureau.Gao Zhanfu, vice president of the China Islamic Institute, said the Muslims were lucky. "This year, more than 12,000 people have the chance to visit Mecca, while 10 years ago, the number was just 3,000," he said.In Gansu alone this year, a total of 2,482 Muslims together with nine doctors and 58 other staff members would leave for Mecca, he said.To Ma Weifeng, a 66-year-old woman from the Hui ethnic minority, the hajj is the most important religious task of her life, which she has waited for decades to fulfill."After I retired in 1997, I've been performing religious rituals five times a day and going to a mosque to learn the Koran," Ma said in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia.However, only a visit to Mecca could make her religious life "consummate.""My application for hajj was approved in 2007, but I got sick then and the pilgrimage was delayed till this year," she said.Ma will be among the 2,250 people to leave for Mecca at 5pm today from Ningxia, where more than a third of the region's population, or 2.1 million, are from the Hui ethnic minority.She began preparing for the trip a month ago. "I heard food in Saudi Arabia is different from ours," she said."So I prepared more than 20 kilograms of food - not just rice, but also pickles and vinegar."She also received a free shot of H1N1 flu vaccine, as all the others did. Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=418057&type=National#ixzz0VYkChROB

Muslim Brotherhood's testing time

A dispute within the leadership of Egypt's largest Islamist opposition group went public over the weekend, opening a heated national debate about the ability of political groups to tolerate internal dissent and disagreement. On October 19, Mohamed Habib, the deputy guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, said that he had been asked by Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the group's 81-year-old supreme guide, to take on many of the leadership responsibilities until 2010.
In January, the opposition group is expected to hold elect a new supreme guide. Akef's decision is unprecedented in the group's 80-year history and it came after a heated dispute between Akef and members of the Guidance Bureau - the group's highest ruling body. Last week, Akef, who announced months ago that he will not run for a second term in January, wanted bureau members to approve the appointment of Esam el-Erian, a senior and outspoken member of the group, to the ruling body. The 55-year-old el-Erian is widely known for his political and media activism on behalf of the group, and is often described by the press as a relatively younger and reformist leader, who wants to take the group into a different direction that is more open towards women, Coptic Christians and other political groups. Walkout
El-Erian is regarded as a reformist within the ruling echelons of the Brotherhood [AFP]
Akef's decision to appoint el-Erian was met with strong opposition by the rest of the Guidance Bureau members. In response, Akef walked out in order to avoid further clashes. Shortly afterwards, news about the rift was leaked to the Egyptian press, who reported that Akef had resigned.
The resignation was initially denied by his group, but they eventually admitted Akef had "delegated most of his powers" to his deputy, Mohamed Habib, until a new leader is elected in January. The rift could not have come at a worse time for the group. The group says hundreds of its members, including top leaders, are in Egyptian jails following a government crackdown on the Brotherhood after it won 20 per cent of seats in Egypt's 2005 parliamentary vote. Observers believe the split will only serve to further weaken a leadership already under pressure. In addition, Egypt is gearing up for both parliamentary elections in 2010 and a presidential poll in 2011, and how stable - or united - the Brotherhood is will likely affect opposition hopes to dent the ruling party's hold on the country. Internal power struggle
The two elections will test the ability of the Muslim Brotherhood to hold its share in parliament and to lead the country's political groups in opposition to the likely presidential successor - Gamal Mubarak, the current Egyptian president's son. Moreover, the incident has raised fears that the Brotherhood is experiencing a much deeper rift between two camps separated by age and political ideology. One camp has, to date, been led by an ageing elite born in the first half of the 20th century who witnessed the crackdown on the group by the Nasserite government in 1954.
Many members of the group were jailed and some of the most prominent leaders were sentenced to death. The old guard, observers say, tend to be more conservative at both religious and political levels - preferring to focus on religious and charitable work while avoiding open political activism. In contrast, when the group resurfaced in the 1970s, it filled its ranks with a much younger grassroots base that tends to be more politically savvy and more open to working with other minority and political groups. The Brotherhood's old guard is accused of blocking the rise of younger, reformist leaders within the organisations leadership. 'Zero-sum' game
Akef is the group's seventh supreme guide [EPA]
Akef is the Brotherhood's seventh supreme guide and is regarded as a balanced leader and buffer between conservatives and reformists.
The clash over el-Erian's appointment has deepened fears the rift between both camps is growing at a time when the organisation most needs a unified front to face the government crackdown and difficult political challenges ahead. "The way the Muslim Brotherhood group manages internal disagreement shows ... the low level of the group's flexibility in dealing with those who disagree with it. The competition between the group wings seems to be a "zero sum" game," writes Khalil al-Anani, an analyst at Egypt's Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya magazine. "Therefore, very often the conservatives will insist on punishing the reformists organisationally, politically and morally and under the claim of keeping the cohesiveness of the group."
However, Arab analysts and experts have interpreted the split differently, with some saying the it is a sign of strength that shows the group is a democratic organisation that cultivates debate. They note the group has survived internal disagreements before and proved itself able to remain united as the most disciplined opposition group in Egypt - despite periodic government crackdowns. "We cannot say that the latest incident will hurt the unity of the group or weaken its solidarity," Alaa Al-Nadi, a researcher on the Egyptian group, says.
"The Muslim Brotherhood has gone through much more harsh turmoil and it came out without any structural collapse or split ... there is not, as widely reported, a conflict between ... the conservatives and the reformists inside the group. "Such disagreement cannot lead to wide cracks or major splits inside the group because the reformists have not become an influential trend yet."
Capitalising on rift
Supporters suggest that the widespread attention given by independent and government-owned media in Egypt to the latest Brotherhood dispute simply underlines the government's interest in publicising the dispute in order to tarnish the image of group in the eyes of ordinary Egyptians. They complain that the media coverage of the dispute within the Muslim Brotherhood ignores that fact that most of Egypt's political opposition parties are weak, divided, dominated by individual founders and often split after the death of their founders. "Most Egyptian parties suffer internal disagreements and divisions and nobody is talking about them... I suspect that the [government] security agencies that have publicised the news about the resignation [of Akef] wanted to give the impression that there is a crack in the structure of the group that could lead to its split," Fahmy Howeidy, a prominent Egyptian Islamist columnist for the independent Al-Shorouk newspaper, says. Even the ruling National Democratic Party is widely seen as a fragmented political group that only maintains the appearance of unity because it is led by the president and counts most of the ruling elite among its members. The secretive nature of the Muslim brotherhood makes it difficult for the media and outside observers truly to know what is going inside the group or understand the size of the current rift between its competing factions.
However, it is clear that the Muslim Brotherhood is facing a serious challenge that it needs to overcome in order to save its image and to get its act together before the the parliament election coming up next year.
By Alaa Bayoumi

Playing politics with childrens health

A Crumlin Hospital patient support group has claimed health service management is playing politics with the health of child patients.

The Save Our Lady's Hospital Campaign was commenting after it was revealed by irishhealth.comtoday that the HSE has in recent weeks written to Crumlin asking it what it intends to do about the fact that over 100 children remain on open heart surgery waiting lists.

The HSE pointed out to the hospital in a letter on September 28 that 25 of the children on the waiting list were in need of urgent surgery.

Teresa Shallow of the Save Our Lady's Hospital Campaign said it would appear that the HSE was now trying to place all the blame for the waiting lists on the hospital, which has implemented major cutbacks this year to stay within its budget.

She pointed out that while bed closures at Crumlin were partly to blame for the long cardiac surgery waiting list, the problems there predated this year's cutbacks.

Ms Shallow said the lack of intensive care capacity at Crumlin was a major contributory factor to the heart surgery waiting lists, and the HSE had failed to act on a report completed last year which showed that major expansion of ICU capacity at the hospital was needed.

She said the problems with ICU capacity at the hospital existed long before this year's cutbacks were implemented.

The cutbacks imposed at Crumlin included the closure of a 25-bed ward and an operating theatre, along with the curtailment of staffing and outpatient clinics.

irishhealth.com has also revealed that the deficit for 2009 estimated by the hospital at the end of April was €3.1 million, before many of the cutbacks were made, whereas it was being stated publicly at the time that there was a deficit of €9 million.

Documentation released under FOI also reveals that Crumlin Hospiutal now plans to break even on its budget at the end of the year and the HSE now wants it to-reopen the operating theatre it closed earlier in the year.

Ms Shallow said there had been conflicting figures thrown about in recent months about the level of Crumlin's deficit, with the Department of Health/HSE and the hospital producing different figures.

She said it appeared that management at the HSE and the hospital were trying to blame each other for the problems at Crumlin, and that politics was being played with the health of children.

Ms Shallow said the Save Our Lady's Hospital group was due to meet with Crumlin management at the end of the month.

"We will be seeking clarification on what exactly the hospital's deficit was this year and whether the cuts that were made had to be made."

Ms Shallow said that while it had been confirmed that the new children's hospital to replace the exixting three hospitals would be built by 2014, this would not help Crumlin's position here and now.

When Fulbright Scholar Dr. Mukhtasar Syamsuddin

When Fulbright Scholar Dr. Mukhtasar Syamsuddin discusses the “Muslim World,” he has several different world to discuss.

“The Islamic culture is the only one in the world based on the Koran, but the Muslim culture is a social construct,” he said. “There are Muslim Americans, Muslim Canadians, Muslim Arabs, Muslim Indonesians.”
Syamsuddin, a Muslim Indonesian, will share these worlds with Northeastern State University over the next six weeks through the Fulbright Visiting Specialists Program. Syamsuddin is the first Fulbright Scholar to be hosted by NSU.
Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program.
Syamsuddin teaches philosophy and philosophy of religion at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia. Theme of his Fulbright visit is “Direct Access to the Muslim World.”
Garments Syamsuddin said he wears in his home country reflect what he said was the diversity of Muslim culture.
Holding his hands to his shoulders, Syamsuddin explained “the clothes you wear must cover your body from here to your foot. You have to do this primarily when you go to pray.
Syamsuddin wore a wrap-around sarong in two hues of green to show what Indonesian Muslim men wear. Muslim men in Arabia usually wear looser floor length robe-like garments he said. Syamsuddin also wears trousers.
He said Muslim women in Indonesia wear headscarves, but “they’re just closing up their hair, not closing up their eyes.”
“In Iran, women close up all of their body but their eyes,” he said.
Syamsuddin said he also will spend his six-week visit clarifying Islamic terms such as “jihad,” which, he said, are misunderstood.
“Jihad is to do your religious commitments truly,” he said. “It does not mean you have to fight against another Muslim or another person. Terrorism is not an expression of jihad.”
He said jihad is a misunderstood word “not just in America, but in the Islamic world itself.”
He said Islamic terrorists see unbelievers as the enemy and have tried to kill them.
“”But according to Islamic teaching, the unbeliever is not the enemy,” he said. “One Islamic teaching is to keep their life in harmony, not in conflict and not to kill.”

Phoenix

UN rights council endorses damning Gaza report

By Hui Min Neo

GENEVA — The UN Human Rights Council endorsed a report on Friday that accused Israel and the Palestinian hardliners Hamas of war crimes in the Gaza conflict, dealing a fresh diplomatic blow to the Jewish state.
While Israel had said such a move would be tantamount to "rewarding terror", the Palestinians welcomed the resolution which it said should be the trigger for follow-up action from the UN Security Council.
Some 25 of the council's 47 members, led by the Arab and African states, voted for the resolution. Six, including the United States, voted against while 16 others either abstained or did not vote.
The resolution calls for the endorsement of "the recommendations contained in the report" produced by a fact-finding mission led by international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone to probe the 22-day conflict.
It also "calls upon all concerned parties including United Nations bodies, to ensure their implementation."
Israel slams 'unjust' report
Goldstone concluded that both Israel and Hamas, Gaza's rulers, committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the conflict launched by Israel in response to rocket fire from the enclave in late December 2008.
The report also recommends referring its conclusions to the International Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague, if Israel and Hamas fail to conduct credible investigations within six months.
The vote came just two days after Israel and the Palestinians came under international pressure during a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East to produce "credible" domestic probes of war crimes allegedly committed during the Gaza conflict.
Welcoming the outcome, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the international action should not end there.
"We hope this will be followed up in the UN Security Council to ensure such Israeli crimes are not repeated," Erakat told AFP.
While there was no immediate response from Israel, its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier urged the council to reject the resolution.
"Responsible nations have to vote against this decision that supports terror and harms peace," Netanyahu told reporters after a meeting with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero late Thursday.
Explaining Washington's reasons for opposing the resolution, US ambassador Douglas Griffiths said: "We had worked for a resolution that recognized the right of a state to take legitimate action to protect its citizens in the face of threats to their security while also condemning violations of international law regardless of the actor.
"Regrettably, this is not the resolution that is before us today."
The Islamist movement Hamas is regarded by Israel and the West as a terrorist organisation after carrying out dozens of suicide attacks.
The conflict in Gaza, that erupted on 27 December 2008, left 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
Meanwhile, Goldstone himself, who was in Bern for a conference Thursday, also criticised the UN Council resolution for targetting only Israel and failing to include Hamas.
The UN resolution is peppered with references to "recent Israeli violations of human rights in occupied east Jerusalem" but failed to make any direct mention to Hamas.
"This draft resolution saddens me as it includes only allegations against Isreal. There is not a single phrase condemning Hamas as we have done in the report. I hope that the council can modify the text," said Goldstone in remarks published in Swiss newspaper Le Temps ahead of the vote.
On the Net:
UN Human Rights Council: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/

Announcing the release of a new book by Prof. Abdulaziz Sachedina on:

Islam and the Challenge of Human Rights "Islam and the Challenge of Human Rights is a reverent, insightful, and truly critical work by Abdulaziz Sachedina, who is the leading Islamic theorist writing in English today. This book is must reading for Muslims who want to be full participants in western moral and political discourse, for Jews and Christians who want voices from the third great monotheistic religion of revelation to become part of their dialogical interaction, and even for secular people who want to engage religious voices in moral and political discourse that is truly inclusive."
David Novak, J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Toronto "A searching investigation questioning the dilemmas facing Muslim thinkers with respect to human rights and a critique of the Western configuration of human rights as universal. Sachedina explores the possibility of an inclusive doctrine of human rights and he does so with passion and sensitivity. This book deepens our appreciation of human rights and also opens new frontiers of inquiry."
Ebrahim Moosa, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke UniversityIn this book, Abdulaziz Sachedina argues for the essential compatibility of Islam and human rights. His work is grounded in a rigorous comparative approach; he not only measures Islam against the yardstick of human rights, but also measures human rights against the theological principles of Islam. He offers a balanced and incisive critique of Western experts who have ignored or underplayed the importance of religion to the development of human rights, arguing that any theory of universal rights necessarily emerges out of particular cultural contexts. At the same time, he re-examines the juridical and theological traditions that form the basis of conservative Muslim objections to human rights, arguing that Islam, like any culture, is open to development and change. Finally, and most importantly, Sachedina articulates a fresh position that argues for a correspondence between Islam and secular notions of human rights. Grounding his work in Islamic history and thought, he reminds us that while both traditions are rigorous and rich with meaning, neither can lay claim to a comprehensive vision of human rights. He never loses sight of the crucial practical consequences of his theory: what's needed is not a comprehensive system of doctrine, but a set of moral principles that are capable -whether sacred or secular - of protecting human beings from abuse and mistreatmentThe book is AVAILABLE now at amazon.com

Pictures from China

Liam Egan invites you to his new site

As salam wa alaikum,

We cordially invite all Muslims in Ireland to participate in and contribute to an exciting new movement of change. To mark our separation and autonomy from the UK team we have launched a new website with the express purpose of dealing with Irish Muslim concerns. We've also included a forum section both for Muslims and non-Muslims. We rely on you for direction and advice and encourage all of you show your support. We all know things need to change, so help us - help the Irish ummah.Please forward this message to your Irish contacts and may Allah reward you for your continued support.