Mission & Justice

Jano Gibson; 1/10/08

A Jewish group plans to overcome an ancient and restrictive religious commandment by creating a virtual wall around an entire North Shore suburb. But its push for greater freedom has caused angst among some St Ives residents, who say it will block their views and create a “Jewish ghetto”. Under Jewish law it is forbidden to push or carry objects beyond the private home on the Sabbath and during holy festivals such as the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, which began at sunset on Monday. That means parents are often unable to take babies and young children to synagogues or parks because they cannot push them there in prams. Likewise, the elderly and disabled cannot be pushed in wheelchairs.

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Nourah Al-Khereiji; 27/9/08

On my way out of the Prophet’s Mosque in the morning of Ramadan 17, a female voice stopped me. I heard one of the women preachers at the Egyptian section tell a lady that Allah will not accept her prayers if she came to the mosque with the sole intention of visiting the Prophet’s grave, because the Prophet (peace be upon him) has “cursed” those who visit graves. An Egyptian lady told her that before leaving Cairo for Madinah they usually say, “we are going to visit the Prophet”. “This is wrong,” the preacher interrupted her, “You should say instead, ‘we are going to Madinah to pray at the Prophet’s Mosque’. You should never say, ‘we are longing to visit the Prophet.’”

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27/9/08

The government yesterday deployed hundreds more federal policemen to eastern India after one person was killed and several injured in fresh clashes between Hindus and Christians triggered by religious conversions. More than 700 federal policemen are being sent to Orissa state after the death in rural Kandhamal district following clashes between Christians and Hindus on Thursday. Several houses were also set on fire. The violence came after a string of attacks on Christians in three Indian states that has left at least 20 people dead and dozens of churches damaged in the last month. Christians have responded with some violence in Orissa state.

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Jano Gibson; 26/9/08

A large Islamic school proposed for a rural area in south-west Sydney is facing fierce opposition from residents just months after Camden residents waged a racially charged battle against a similar development in their area. A company called ASFA Limited has applied to Liverpool City Council to build an educational facility called Qaadiri College for 600 primary and high school students at Gurner Avenue in Austral. But neighbours of the site are adamant a development of that scale will destroy their peaceful lifestyle. They insist their concerns have nothing to do with Islam and would oppose similar-sized projects if they were proposed by other faith groups. But there are signs that known anti-immigration activists are keen to join in a campaign against it. The online forum, www.australianidentity.net, which openly declares that “views, ideas and contributions that are hostile to [an Anglo-Celtic-European-white heritage] are not permitted” on it, received several postings about the proposal after the development application was lodged in April.

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Linda Morris; 25/9/08

An Islamiac cemetery will be built in the grounds of a historic Anglican graveyard near Camden where plans for an Islamic school were rejected this year following fierce community opposition. The Lebanese Muslim Association paid $1.5 million for the St Thomas Anglican Cemetery at Narellan in July. The site has space for almost 4000 bodies and will help overcome an acute shortage of gravesites in Sydney. The prospectus for the An-Nur Islamic Cemetery and Burial Ground, obtained by the Herald, shows the cemetery will have capacity for 1900 single plots or 3800 double plots and would be able to cater for the needs of the growing Muslim community in Sydney’s south-west for 10 to 15 years. But the sale has angered locals fiercely protective of the heritage values of the cemetery and who say the Anglican Church should never have sold it. Len English has 33 relatives buried at the cemetery and mowed it until the church sold it to a funeral firm headed by William Cole in 2004.

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Mariam Al Hakeem; 23/9/08

The agents of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have been barred from entering the family sections of restaurants and hotels without the express permission of the commission’s chief. Shaikh Ebrahim Al Gaith, who heads the commission, said he received directives from Prince Khalid Al Faisal, Emir of Makkah region, to ban commission members from entering the family section of restaurants unless prior permission is granted to them. Al Gaith said the Emir’s instructions do not apply to eateries in malls and shopping centres.Commission staff randomly enter malls, restaurants and local and private establishments to enforce proper moral conduct.

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Ramadan Al Sherbini; 24/9/08

Like his fellow Muslim beings in the Al Hussain area here, Kamal Mahmoud eagerly awaits the start of Ramadan. This month injects fresh blood into the craft of Mahmoud, who runs a workshop for manufacturing prayer beads. “With Chinese rosaries flooding the Egyptian market, it is difficult for me and others like me to sell our rosaries,” Mahmoud, 68, told Gulf News. “Compared to the local ones, Chinese rosaries are of low quality and are cheap.” Chinese prayer beads, which are plentifully available here and in the neighbouring market area of Khan Al Khalili, sell for less than $1 (Dh3.67). “Egyptian rosaries, made of precious material, may sell for much more ,” said Mahmoud.

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Joseph Marques; 22/9/08

For the past few weeks, a systematic attack is being carried out on the Christian minority in India. It started in an eastern state called Orissa and the flames have spread to Karnataka, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, where a number of churches and other Christian places of worship have been desecrated. The anti-Christian violence began when a Hindu religious leader, who was opposed to conversion of tribals to Christianity, was killed in Orissa. Hindu fundamentalists blame the Christians for the heinous act, although Maoists who are active in that area have claimed responsibility. Indians, by nature are secular, and most of them have condemned the atttacks on the Christians.

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Bassam Za’za’; 22/9/08

An Emirati housewife (of Indian origin) and a Pakistani electrician have been charged with polygamy and forging their marriage contract. Under Sharia law, a woman cannot have two husbands at one time. According to records, the 35-year-old woman left her Emirati husband’s house here and eloped with the 42-year-old Pakistani to his country where they claimed she was unmarried and entered into a marriage contract.

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Or Kashti; 22/9/08

The Education Ministry has disqualified the matriculation exam in Jewish philosophy administered at an ultra-Orthodox girls’ school in Jerusalem this past summer, after the institution refused to allow a ministry proctor into the classroom because it said she was not properly attired. The ministry said the school did not have the authority to reject a proctor, and therefore disqualified the results of all 243 exams taken that day. On June 1, the test in Jewish philosophy was given at the Beit Hannah-Chabad girls’ school in Jerusalem. According to the school’s exam coordinator, Rabbi Asher Solomon, the proctor came “wearing slacks and a shirt with very short sleeves, above the shoulder. We passed through the corridors to make sure everything was going properly, but I explained to her that dressed like that, we could not allow her to enter the classrooms.”

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