UNITY

Bismillah.

According to Sheikh Salman al-‘Awdah’s website, http://www.islamtoday.net, Eid has been announced for tomorrow (Tues) in Saudi, Egypt, Yemen, UAE & Qatar. (Saudi claim that the crescent was seen in its Sudair & Shaqra’ regions.) This is despite zero moon-visibility there, as the following links demonstrate: http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/moonwatch/nextnewmoon.htm and http://www.icoproject.org/icop/shw32.html#whenwaxing. Oman has announced Eid for Wed.

Over the next few hours (UK evening time), the crescent moon will be visible over the Southern Atlantic and South America. Therefore, Eid on Tuesday is valid for many parts of the world (inc. the UK) if one goes by “global sighting” and “sharing the night” fiqh principles, especially in an age of instant communication (please refer to Ibn Taymiyyah’s discussion about the importance of knowledge and news of moonsighting in this issue, available elsewhere on this blog).

But if one goes by more “local sighting” criteria, Eid would be on Wednesday in many parts of the world.

Here is what ICOP have to say about the “Universal Hejra Calendar”:

According to the Universal Hejric Calendar (UHC), which is based on the calculated crescent visibility, the start of this month [& Eid] in the Eastern Region will be on Tuesday 30 August 2011 and in the Western Region will be on Tuesday 30 August 2011. Kindly note that the UHC is a pre-calculated calendar, which adopts a certain criterion to start the new Hejric month. Your country/organization might adopt different criterion to start the new Hejric month. So it is highly advised to read the UHC website (http://www.icoproject.org/uhc.html) before giving any judgment.

So Eid Mubarak, whenever you celebrate :), and a sad farewell to Ramadan! 😦

Bismillah. Please refer to the UK Moonwatch website
(www.crescentmoonwatch.org), especially the “next new moon” section.

The UK should probably celebrate Eid on Wed 31st August, i.e. a 30-day Ramadan, although a case can be made for Eid on Tues 30th August, since the predicted first visibility of the new crescent moon is relatively close to the Greenwich meridian, albeit in the far southern hemisphere. Details below, taken from the Moonwatch website – please refer to the diagrams there also.

Some UK mosques have had major disputes over the timing of dawn and fast-beginning this month (18-degree sun angle vs. 15 degrees, etc.). This is pathetic.

Please, let’s enjoy a blessed last 10 days of Ramadan and a wonderful Eid, whenever we celebrate. As usual, it needs political unity to make a collective
decision on Eid in keeping with scientific knowledge. The latter is also a must in technology-based societies, especially for Islamic faith-communities whose civilisation once led the way in science and technology for centuries.

Usama Hasan
Vice-Chairman, Al-Tawhid Mosque & Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society 21st of Ramadan 1432 and August 2011
—
From the Moonwatch homepage this month:

Welcome to HMNAO’s Moon Watch web site.
Have you ever wondered at what stage you can see the new crescent moon?

In August 2011, the New Moon will occur on August 29th. Sighting of this crescent moon will mark the end of Ramadan and the start of the three day festival of Eid ul-Fitr for the Muslim community.

A naked-eye sighting of the new crescent moon may be possible under very good conditions from central parts of South America on August 29th. However, it is more likely that sightings may be made the same day from southern parts of South America and from south-western parts of the Pacific Ocean region. Easier sightings of the new crescent moon should be possible from most parts of the world on August 30th with the exception of northern and central Asia, northern Europe and Canada. These exceptions should be able to sight the new crescent Moon the following day on August 31st. Consequently, we would like to encourage as many observers as possible to try and observe the new crescent Moon from August 29th to August 31st.

Bismillah. I spoke to Amanda Lindhout on Sunday . She mentioned: people walking for 40 days in the heat to the camp in Kenya, many dying along the way; a mum whose 3 kids had died on the way; mums holding their dead babies.

Please donate to the Convoy of Hope: the target is to raise $300,000 by Saturday 30th July 2011. If you wished to give some zakat during Ramadan, consider paying some or all of it early. Below is a letter of appeal. Please also share with others, thanks 🙂

More background is here: http://www.susanmcclelland.com/pdf/World_Amanda_Lindhout.pdf
—

You can find more information on our website:
www.globalenrichmentfoundation.com

or click here to go directly to the Somalia Famine page:

http://www.globalenrichmentfoundation.com/newsReleases/somaliaCrisis2011.htm

Our goal is to raise $300,000 USD by Saturday July 30th which will feed 50,000 starving Somalis inside of Somalia. Food distribution will take place in Dhoobley, Somalia and will target those fleeing the country on foot. Many of these people die of starvation before making it across the Kenyan border into the refugee camps. Our food baskets will feed a family of 5 for two weeks, giving them sustenance to complete the multi-week journey and settle in the camps.

All implementing organizations on the ground are working with 0% overhead. Anyone requiring a tax receipt will be charged a 17% administrative charge by Hope For The Nations, our American based partner issuing the receipts within North America. Compared to the 40%overhead costs of Unicef, the only other organization doing food distribution, our convoy is the best option for maximizing donor impact.

I believe it is our responsibility as compassionate citizens of the world to do whatever we can to save the lives of those suffering in Somalia. It is a tragedy when mothers are burying their children because of lack of food.

If nothing else people should know that with every donation they give- lives are saved.

With gratitude,

Amanda Lindhout
Founder and Executive Director
The Global Enrichment Foundation

www.globalenrichmentfoundation.com

Bismillah. I’ve been thinking about these matters, inspired by the summit last week. I remembered a couple of relevant thoughts from other people:

1) Four years ago at a discussion held in SOAS (University of London), one undergrad said emphatically, “Every kid in East London wants to be a gangster, and the ultimate gangster is the terrorist!”
2) I once spoke to someone who was convicted of minor terrorism-related charges and spent some months in the maximum-security Belmarsh prison in the UK around 2004. He told me that in prison, there was a hierarchy of respect amongst the prisoners according to the severity of the crime: armed robbery, murder, etc. Top of the chain was terrorism. “When I told them I was in for terrorism, they’d think that I’d blown up a plane or something and give me maximum respect.”

This is something that is understood on the streets, but often not by law-enforcement or government. In London, every borough police commander I’ve ever asked has told me that gangs and drugs are the biggest issues for them. Let’s hope that the UK police forces and government departments, local and national, can do some joined-up thinking around these matters and address the problems more holistically.

Bismillah. Received from a friend today, regarding Hasan Nuhanovic etc.:

—

I thought you might like to know the outcome of Hasan’s appeal today, and I hope it will give you encouragement to persevere in the face of all odds.

Sadly it doesn’t bring back Hasan’s mother, father and brother or Mr Mustafic
and the other victims, but I hope it will mean that in future UN Protection will in fact mean that.

The Associated Press
5 July 2011

Srebrenica victims win lawsuit against the Dutch

By MIKE CORDER – Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, July 5 (AP) — The Netherlands was responsible for the
deaths of three Bosnian Muslim men slain by Serbs during the 1995 Srebrenica
massacre, appeals judges ruled Tuesday, ordering the Dutch government to
compensate the men’s relatives.

The landmark ruling could open the path to other compensation claims by victims
who claim their male relatives should have been protected by the Dutch U.N.
peacekeepers in charge of the U.N. ‘safe zone’ near Srebrenica during Bosnia’s
1992-1995 war.

It could also have wider implications for countries sending troops on U.N.
peacekeeping missions, as it opens the possibility of national governments being
taken to court for the actions of their troops even when they are under U.N.
control.

The case was brought by Hasan Nuhanovic, an interpreter who lost his brother and
father, and relatives of Rizo Mustafic, an electrician who was killed. They
argued that all three men should have been protected by Dutch peacekeepers.
Mustafic and Nuhanovic were employed by the Dutch peacekeepers, but Nuhanovic’s
father and brother were not.

One of the relatives, Damir Mustafic, told The Associated Press outside the
court that the ruling came just days before he was to bury his father’s remains
in a Srebrenica cemetery. Some 600 bodies exhumed from mass graves around the
town in the past year have been identified using DNA tests, and they will be
interred Monday as part of commemorations for the 16th anniversary of Europe’s
worst massacre since World War II.

“I am very happy, finally,” Mustafic said. “It has been a long case and it feels
especially good because on the 11th, I have to bury my father.”

The victims were among thousands of Muslims who took shelter in the U.N.
compound as Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Gen. Ratko Mladic overran
Srebrenica on July 11 in what was to become the bloody climax to the 1992-95
Bosnian war that claimed 100,000 lives.

Two days later, the outnumbered Dutch peacekeepers bowed to pressure from
Mladic’s troops and forced thousands of Muslim families out of the compound.
Bosnian Serb forces sorted the Muslims by gender, then trucked the males away
and began executing some 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Those bodies were plowed
into hastily made mass graves in what international courts have ruled was
genocide.

The ruling said even though the Dutch soldiers were operating under a U.N
mandate, they were under the “effective control” of top Dutch military and
government officials in The Hague when they ordered hundreds of Muslim men and
boys out of their compound.

The ruling said the three men were among the last to be expelled and by that
time the “Dutchbat” peacekeepers already had seen Bosnian Serb troops abusing
Muslim men and boys and should have known they faced the real threat of being
killed.

“Dutchbat should not have turned these men over to the Serbs,” a summary of the
judgment said.

Government lawyer Karlijn Teuben said she would have to study the decision
before deciding whether to appeal.

The Hague Appeals Court did not immediately set a compensation figure. Victims’
lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld said the sum would “not be in the millions.”

“This was never about money for the victims,” Zegveld said.

Zegveld was surprised the appeals panel overturned a 2008 court ruling that
rejected any Dutch government responsibility.

“I didn’t consider this possible within the borders of the Netherlands,” she
said. “Because we’re all too much involved. It’s too big, it’s too much a trauma
in our state and I thought the court would not be able to disentangle themselves
from the drama.”

Nuhanovic said the ruling was “a relief,” but he is still pursuing other cases
at home in Bosnia.

“I am after the killers of my family, the Serbs who live in Bosnia,” he said.
“One of them even works in the same building where I work … I have to go to my
office every day to the same building and he’s still there. So this is just one
of the cases I have been dealing with for the last 10-15 years.”

Tuesday’s ruling is the latest step in dealing with a national trauma for the
Netherlands.

The humiliated Dutch troops returned home from Srebrenica to scathing charges of
cowardice and incompetence, although subsequent inquiries exonerated the ground
forces.

The Dutch government resigned in 2002 after an investigation by the National War
Documentation Institute blamed the debacle on Dutch authorities and the United
Nations for sending the battalion into the mission, failing to give the
peacekeepers enough weapons for self-defense and refusing to answer the
commanders’ call for air support.

Zegveld said although the ruling was tightly focused on the three victims named
in the case, it would likely give hope to others.

“I assume that for those families who had male members on the compound that they
stand a good chance to win their case as well,” she said.

It was not immediately clear how many other relatives – if any – are suing the
Dutch state.

Zegveld said she also is considering launching a civil case in Dutch courts
against Mladic, who was extradited here by Serbia in May after more than 15
years on the run.

Mladic is being held at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, where he faces 11
charges including genocide for commanding troops responsible for atrocities
including the Srebrenica massacre.

Mladic belligerently refused to enter any pleas to the charges at a hearing
Monday and judges entered not guilty pleas on his behalf. He faces a life
sentence if convicted.

###

Bismillah. The following were also at the summit: ex-President Uribe of Colombia. Mark who was kidnapped there by FARC rebels (as was Tom Hart-Dyke, not at the summit).

Camilla Carr, who went to Chechnya from the UK to help children but was kidnapped and held by fighters for 14 months & treated brutally. She has written a book about her ordeal, “The Sky Is Always There.”

Dari (?), one of the teachers held hostage during the Beslan massacre, was also there but I didn’t have the honour of meeting her.

Sue Hanisch, whose leg was blown off by an IRA bomb in a litter-bin at London’s Victoria Station in 1991. Bins were removed from the London Underground after that.

I was touched by the patience, dignity, courage, forgiveness and smiles of all the heroic “Survivors” at the Summit. The Formers are all inspirational people: the Survivors even more so. All Praise be to Allah.

God is Great! 🙂

Bismillah. Last session yesterday: Paul Carrillo & Yasmin Mulbocus, ex al-Muhajirun, chaired by Chris Isham (not the quantum gravity expert!)

Today’s sessions:

We just had a POWERFUL talk from Aichah el-Wafi, mum of Zacharias Moussaoui (“20th hijacker” of 9/11), interviewed by Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton. She is now chairing a panel on identity with Ben Owens (ex-Cripp), Arno Michaels (ex neo-Nazi, Kindness not Weakness) & Noman Benotman (ex-leader of the Libyan Jihadis, was with Bin Ladin & Zawahiri in Afghan).

Prof. Slaughter was very struck by the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), “The strong man is not one who wrestles his opponent to the ground. The strong man is the one who controls himself when angry.” It had been mentioned by Yasmin Mulbocus on stage the previous day, and the Prof requoted it today, exploring what it means to be powerful, macho etc.

Dr. Shona Brown, Director of Google, chairing with Mubin Shaikh (ex-member of Toronto terrorist cell), an ex neo-Nazi, ex SA gang leader + Ruth, a former Bader-Meinhoff sympathiser.

Jared Cohen chairing: Tahir Malik (wife blown up by Taliban at the UN World Food Programme in Islamabad), an ex-skinhead who runs Harmony Through Hockey, Rudy Cruz, Imam Sani Isah of Nigeria plus our very own Abu Muntasir 🙂

One of the heads of Sesame St International speaking: Gary. They try to impart decent values to kids from a young age (in some countries, kids join gangs aged 4-d & get killed at 10-12). Operate in 140 countries, inc. Pak + Middle East. Eg issues such as childhood obesity. Now showing premiere of a clip on bullying that will be watched by 30 million kids later this year God-willing 🙂

Bismillah. Patterns of Radicalisation, moderated by Farah Pandith (US Special Representative to Muslim Communities). With Imam Nurayn Ashafa of Nigeria (from the “Imam and Pastor” film), Sammy Rangel (inspiring Native American ex-gangster with a T-shirt saying “Kindness Is Not Weakness”), Angela King (ex-white supremacist) + Eric Gibson, ex-LA gangster in a wheelchair after being shot 5 times in a drive-by shooting in 1993, the 13-yr-old girl beside him was killed by a single bullet to the head.

Personal stories from Brazil + Iran. Then I was on a panel with Henry Robinson (ex-IRA), Mo Mohammed (ex al-Shabab, Somalia), James (the Pastor from the “Imam and Pastor” film). Chaired by Amanda Lindhout, who was kidnapped by al-Shabab in Somalia and held for 15 months, starved and treated brutally.  She has now set up the Global Enrichment Foundation, dedicated to helping the people of Somalia, especially the refugees and orphans who had to flee to neighbouring Kenya.

Workshop around integration. More inspiring people, including Bud whose 23-yr-old daughter died in the Oklahoma bombing of 1995 (she was born a month before me).

In the discussions about dialogue, I kept thinking of the ayah of Surah al-Hujurat, “We have made you peoples and tribes so that you may get to know each other.”

Someone mentioned “integration buddies” – used successfully in various places. I thought of the Prophet (pbuh) pairing his Meccan & Medinan companions after the hijrah: the Muhajirun & Ansar (Emigres/Refugees & Helpers/Hosts).

The final panel included Yasmin Mulbocus, ex “Al-Muhajirun” (so-called) from London, Paul Carrillo, chaired by a famous Chris Isham, not the Quantum Gravity expert from Imperial College London! 🙂