The Religious Affairs Ministry of Indonesia will put Rp 9 trillion (US$828 million) of Haj and Umrah Trust funds in sukuk (Islamic bonds) to better manage the funds for the benefit of Muslims who want to undertake Haj pilgrimage. For the first instalment, the ministry will put Rp 1.5 trillion of funds in sukuk through a private placement system in May, Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basyuni said during a signing of memorandum of understandings (MoU) with the Finance Min...

The United Nations is providing cover for Israeli racism, say dozens of human rights workers and Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesperson for Hamas. The United Nations Conference against Racism in Geneva was boycotted by the US, Israel, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Germany. That is “just in case” it deals with Israeli racism. But the boycotting countries have nothing to fear as the United Nations bent to pressure to ban discussion of Israeli racism. Barhoum said that ...

While US President Barack Obama said he’ll close the Guantanamo prisoner camp in Cuba, he’s being criticised for following his predecessor’s policy on the Bagram prison in Afghanistan. The new US government disappointed human rights activists when it chose to adhere to the Bush administration’s position that detainees imprisoned at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan have no right to challenge their confinement in US courts. Critics have now begun referring to Bagram ...

Two Tatar youth organisations have called on Moscow to give official status to the Tatar language in Russia. Uzebez (Ourselves) and the Tatar Youth Forum said that they have begun collecting signatures for their proposal and are seeking to have the issue considered in the Russian State Duma. The organisations claim that because Tatars are the second-largest ethnic group in Russia, their native language should be recognised as an official state language alongside Russian. They cite Finland&r...

A university named Hudaibiya will be established as part of the Makkah Gate project, which aims to develop Makkah into a modern city with advanced living facilities. The city will also see, as part of the project, the establishment of a cultural dialogue centre, a heritage village and a conference centre.

Spread over an area of 80 million square meters from Shumaisi checkpoint to the gate of Makkah along the expressway, the project also includes the construction of buildings for...

Dengue fever in Makkah neighbourhoods is fast declining as a result of preventive measures adopted by various government departments, according to an official of the Ministry of Health. “The latest studies of the ministry showed that the number of dengue fever patients fell last week by more than 50 per cent compared to their number in the previous weeks thanks to various preventive measures adopted by the ministry and other related agencies,” Khaled Al-Zahrani, assistant unders...

With students having Islamic education while studying secular subjects, Madrasa Al Irsyad Al Islamiah in Singapore is giving an example of a model Islamic education in tune with modern world. At class, students study religious subjects as well as secular studies such as English, math and other subjects from the national curriculum. The school’s 900 primary- and secondary-level students study religious education as well as the national curriculum of the country’s public schools. ...

Malaysian Premier Najib Razak criticised the opposition for calling a by-election after one of its lawmakers quit, saying the poll will waste public money at a time of economic crisis. He also said the coalition may not contest in the polls as it would be a waste of money, according to the Sunday Star newspaper. A senior member of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s party resigned following an investigation into alleged corruption. Mohamad Fairus Khairuddin, who was the deputy...

Top ministers in Malaysia on April 20 met to end a row over the unilateral conversion of three children of an ethnic Indian Hindu woman to Islam by their father recently. Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramanian, who is also the secretary general of the Malaysian Indian Congress, the largest ethnic Indian party in the country, said he and two other ministers met following a report by the children’s mother Indira Ghandi, stating that her kids were converted to Islam without her knowle...