The perverse maths of Palestine

Bismillah, alhamdulillah : In the name of God, with hope and submission

I came across a well written article in the Guardian (Israel's onslaught on Gaza is a crime that cannot succeed) the following line highlights the perverse maths of Palestine:

"During the last seven years, 14 Israelis have been killed by mostly homemade rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, while more than 5,000 Palestinians were killed by Israel with some of the most advanced US-supplied armaments in the world."

I pray that  God extinguishes the flames of war and reins in the dogs of war. The following verse of the Quran comes to mind and deserves reflection:

5:64 And the Jews say, "God's hand is shackled!" It is their own hands that are shackled; and rejected [by God] are they because of this their assertion. Nay, but wide are His hands stretched out: He dispenses [bounty] as He wills. But all that has been bestowed from on high upon thee [O Prophet] by thy Sustainer is bound to make many of them yet more stubborn in their overweening arrogance and in their denial of the truth. And so We have cast enmity and hatred among the followers of the Bible , [to last] until Resurrection Day; every time they light the fires of war, God extinguishes them ; and they labour hard to spread corruption on earth: and God does not -love the spreaders of corruption.

What is a WASP?

Bismillah, alhamdulillah : In the name of God, with gratitude and praise for Him

The Prophet Muhammad (S) made jokes with his Companions, but was careful never to tell lies when doing so and did not make this his natural disposition. In emulation of this Sunnah or practice and hopefully without falling into extremism in this arena I thought I would compile the various moments of mirth I have observed from time to time.

Listening to a programme on the BBC exploring cities that encourage immigration it was looking at one of the most successful cities in the world which happen to be in Canada. One of the experts on the programme illustrated the multi-ethnicity of the city by saying that the percentage of the WASPs was relatively low compared to the USA. I noted with mirth what the acronym stood for: White Anglo Saxon Protestants.

 

del.icio.us Tags: WASP - White Anglo Saxon Protestants,Canada v USA

Islamic studies in Jeddah

Bismillah, alhamdulillah : In the name of God, with gratitude and praise for Him

There are opportunities to listen to study Islam in Jeddah, but these are not as abundant as in other cities in the country and few well advertised opportunities exist in English. I have tried to list what I am aware of sources and places to learn in English and Arabic primarily. I have briefly touched upon Urdu. Where possible I have tried to clarify the location of places.

Minimising cost in dawah - Asterix opensource IVR

Bismillah, alhamdulillah : In the name of God, with gratitude and praise for Him

Many dawah organisations work on very tight budgets, perhaps even the money that comes from cookie and cake sales! Listening to the BBC I came across this very useful piece of opensource software for organisations who would like to set up an IVR (interactive Voice Response) system on the cheap. The software is being used by humanitarian organisations in Southern Africa. It is called Asterix and is available here.

del.icio.us Tags: Asterix opensource IVR,cheap interactive voice response software,minimising costs in dawah

What makes a good curriculum?

Bismillah, alhamdulillah : In the name of God, with gratitude and praise for Him

With the increasing use of the internet in education, what concerns me a lot are teachers who ask students to 'research' a particular topic on the internet. Initially it sounds quite impressive. But a few moments of thought and a few days of experience reveal two fundamental problems: time & security - this post dwells on the former.

Learning Arabic in Jeddah

Bismillah, alhamdulillah.

Learning the host language of a land you have come to helps your integration into that community. Learning Arabic can be quite a challenge to people coming to the Middle East, especially the Gulf. There are various challenges and this article describes my Jeddah experience with this:

Decline of the Islamic calendar

Bismillah, alhamdulillah.

The two Islamic Eids usually witness a great deal of controversy over their precise dates. Proponents mainly in the West argue for the use astronomical calculations to determine the probability of visibility of the new crescent, which marks the beginning of the new month. The method chosen by the Saudi authorities is more simple and relies on the presence of witnesses whose testimony is accepted on oath by a judge. The process by which the Saudi authorities decide which sightings to accept or not is obscure. The lack of public scrutiny of this process only fuels the general suspicion that the process is subject to other factors.