Molana Abdul Qudoos Muhammadai: A Known Muslim Scholar

Molana Abdul Qudoos Muhammadi is a famous Muslim scholar of Pakistan. He is expert in both religious and modern studies. Presently, he is holding the prestigious position as Media Director of Wifaqul Madaris Arabia Pakistan, an organization that represents over twelve thousand Madaris. Molana Abdul Qudoos Muhammadi is Khatib (orator) at Jamia Masjid Muhammadi, a well known mosque in Islamabad. Beside this he is also Principal of Madrassa Usman e Ghani. He has introduced Iqra Educational System, a balanced education system that combines both religious and current educations.
He is a known columnist in different Pakistani dailies and people wait for his articles. His articles are read by people of all schools of thought.
Molana Abdul Qudoos Muhammadi took an initiative by arranging very informative media workshops for the students of Islamic Madaris. It is an unprecedented and unique programme of its kind through which the selected students are guided and motivated to serve in the field of journalism thus bringing them to the national stream. This particular programme is intended to bridge the gap between old and modern philosophies of education and to eliminate the misunderstandings between Islamic Madaris and institutes for modern education.
Molana Abdul Qudoos Muhammadi is also currently working as a social worker. The aim of his life is to assist poor and orphans, provide them education and to support the widows. In this regard he has been working with the mutual assistance of Khubaib Foundation. He has also been supervising different projects of mosque-construction. In brief he has been blessed by Almighty Allah to do different types of religious services.
Furthermore, he is a main member of Inter Religious Council for Health. At this plat form he has not only united people belonging to different sects but also played his active role in bringing the followers of different religions closer. In this council, he has been working on the precautionary measures in the light of religion against HIV, AIDS, polio, Hepatitis and other fatal diseases. It is he who united religious scholars at a plat form to create awareness in public regarding mother & baby care, nutrition, iodine salt and cleanliness. His services are admirable for peace in Pakistan.
In fact he is a person with multiple exceptional characteristics that are unlikely to be found in every person. Working simultaneously on different projects is an indication to his God-gifted abilities showing his passion for the Muslim Ummah.

EU Muslims press for Gaza siege lift

Raising awareness about the impact of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, European Muslims are pressing hard to lift the merciless blockade on the 1.6 million people in the enclave.

“The European Muslim role in lifting the Israeli siege on Gaza is backed by humanitarian and legal principles, which go in line with the values championed by European governments and societies,” Dr. Arafat Madi, chairman of the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG), told IsalmOnlne.net.

“The importance of this role basically emanates from the weight of the European role in drawing up international policies.”

Madi met this week with President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek to discuss the crippling blockade on Gaza.

“The meeting took up the importance of activating the European role in lifting the unjust siege on Gaza,” he said.

Israel has clamped a siege on the Gaza Strip since Hamas was voted to power in the 2006 legislative elections.

It further tightened the blockade after Hamas assumed control in 2007, effectively leaving the 1.6 million Gazans cut off from the outside world and struggling with desperate poverty.

“The ECESG has sought all political means to break the siege on Gaza,” noted the European Muslim leader.

He said a series of meetings were held with most European lawmakers and decision-makers to discuss how to lift the blockade.

“The ECESG has also contacted officials and governments across the continent to press for lifting the siege and having a more effective European role in the region to help restore the legitimate Palestinian rights.”

Sent to jail for throwing a single bottle

Last year, during protests against the attack on Gaza, a mixed group of demonstrators clashed with police. But when the alleged culprits were arrested in dawn raids, nearly all those taken were young Muslims

Badi Tebani and his wife were sleeping peacefully when all hell broke loose. He shudders at the memory. The front door was forced open, and then came the screaming. "Wah, wah, wah, get down, get down, you are under arrest."

Any number of voices. He thought it was a nightmare – that he was back in Algeria in the bad old days before he was granted political asylum in Britain, and that the military had broken into the house. When he opened his eyes, his bedroom was full of police officers. "I have diabetes and high blood pressure," he says quietly. "It was worse than Algeria, even. I became very depressed."

It was 5am, April 2009. Badi's eldest son Hamza, 23, takes up the story. "I woke up and tried to get out of bed. The next thing is three police officers jump on top of me with their knees, and they handcuffed me so hard I screamed. That's when I really woke up." Hamza had been sleeping in shorts. When he asked if he could put a shirt on the police said no and opened the window. "It was freezing. I was shaking."

His three brothers, the youngest of whom was 15 at the time, were also handcuffed. Hamza says there were too many officers to count – somewhere between 20 and 30. They took computers, clothes, iPhones, everything. "I've never been in trouble, never been to the police station except when my car was broken into, and they were treating me as a criminal. One of the officers was playing card games with my iPhone, another was just ordering coffee."

Badi, an Arabic teacher, tuts. "They make our house into a coffee shop."

But it wasn't Badi or Hamza the police were after. It was Yahia, one of Hamza's younger brothers. When Yahia heard that the police were looking for him he was confounded. "I didn't know why they were there, and then I hear my name and I'm shocked."

Three months earlier, in January last year, Yahia had been outside the Israeli embassy on a fractious demonstration against Israel's sustained bombing of Gaza.

Protesters complained that the demonstration was policed provocatively and that they had been "kettled" inside a tunnel and beaten. Meanwhile, the police complained that they had been assaulted by demonstrators.

Yahia, 18, says both accounts are true. He claims that the policing was aggressive and intimidatory, and that demonstrators responded by throwing sticks and bottles at the embassy and the officers, who were wearing full-body shields. Yahia picked up a few sticks from discarded banners and flung them in the direction of the police. He was one of approximately 50,000 demonstrators, many of whom threw objects. It was a mixed bunch – white and black, Muslim and Christian, Stop the War Coalition, CND, all sorts. This was one of a number of Gaza demonstrations covered on television news, and it was reported there had been some trouble – but nothing on the scale of, say, the G20 protests or the poll tax riots.

Yahia, who was studying media technology at Kingston University, had gone on the march for two reasons – to protest, and to interview fellow demonstrators for a project on Gaza. The crowd was held by the police for four hours and eventually released. Some people were filmed and had to give their name and address to the police, some were arrested. Yahia simply left of his own accord, and eventually got home at midnight.

He told Hamza it had been a difficult day, it had given him plenty of food for thought, and that was that – until the police broke into the family home in Finsbury Park, north London, three months later. Yahia was arrested in March and charged with violent disorder and burglary – at one point during the demo, he says, he had taken a chair from the nearby Starbucks to sit on, but police reports said the Starbucks was trashed and mugs and chairs were used as weapons. He was advised that the burglary charge would be dropped if he pleaded guilty to violent disorder, for which he would probably receive a suspended sentence or community service. He thought a lesser charge of affray would have been fairer, but agreed to the compromise. "It would always look bad in the future if it says burglary. People won't know what really happened, so I couldn't risk that being on my file."

Yahia is to be sentenced this month. How's he feeling? "Stressed. Pah. Just waiting to go in. I've been asking my friend what it's like. He says time goes quick – he doesn't want to scare me."

It's not just the prospect of prison that terrifies him, it's what comes after. "If I've got 'ex-prisoner' on my file, how am I going to get a job? It will destroy my career."

Mosque Plan axed after UK church pressure

Under pressure from churches and locals, the town of Camberley, south East England, has voted against a plan by the local Muslim community to build a mosque.

Thirty-four of the 36-member Surrey Heath Borough Council voted against a plan by the Bengali Welfare Association to build the mosque, the Daily Mail reported Thursday, March 11.

The council had initially approved the mosque plans proposed by the Berkshire, Hampshire & Surrey Bengali Welfare Association (BWA) in January.

The change of decision came after a campaign by local churches and residents, who oppose the mosque’s design and site.

The mosque was to be built on the site of a locally-listed Victorian former school bought by Muslims 14 years ago and used as an Islamic center.

BWA asserted that the building no longer met the needs of the growing local Muslim community, and people wanted to worship in a mosque and not in a school.

The Churches Together coalition had campaigned against the proposal, saying the mosque would spark "antagonism between the Muslim community and the wider community in Camberley for years to come."

Among other biased Christian authorities, John Denham, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, had also threatened to review the council’s decision if it approved the mosque plan.

The decision widely disappointed Camberley Muslims.

BWA chairman Abdul Majid said he felt the vote had been "hijacked by political influence."

Nahrni Choudhury, who spoke at the meeting on behalf of BWA, accused some of the campaigners of racism.

"I am upset. It's not just about what the buildings will be," she said after the meeting.

"It's about the fact that we are Muslims and we are an ethnic minority and they don't want to see a mosque here."