Tag: Muslim world

  • Hajjis to get mobile sims and free internet

    Hajjis to get mobile sims and free internet

    Caretaker Minister for Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony Aneeq Ahmed has said that the government will provide free-of-cost mobile SIMs with roaming internet packages for pilgrims, on Tuesday.

    He further stated that female abayas having a Pakistani flag on the backside and 13 Kg suitcases will also be provided to pilgrims performing hajj this year.

    The minister said that it was a historic step that the caretaker government has declared a significant reduction of one lac in government Hajj expenses, adding that a further Rs50,000 will also be reduced in the coming few days after which Hajjaj will get back their money in their accounts.

    He further revealed that a new mobile application has been designed to assist pilgrims, which will provide navigation support and enable constant communication between pilgrims and relevant officials.

    Initially available in English and Urdu, the application will later incorporate various regional languages, he said, adding that, the app will also provide digital training programs to every pilgrim.

    The minister also disclosed a project that the Ministry of Hajj in collaboration with the Ministry of Education has planned to convert city mosques into schools to enroll out-of-school children where the Imam of mosques will play a leading role.

    Minister said that mosques will play their role as community centers in every city area, adding that imams will resolve community issues as well after offering prayers.

    He said that the Ministry of Hajj is taking all four provinces on board and enhancing the connectivity of mosques.

    While describing another project, minister for religious affairs said that his ministry with the collaboration of health ministry has another project in which medical clinics will also be part of mosques.

    Lady health workers and other essential staff of doctors will also be provided in all masajid where they will facilitate to citizens visiting inside the masque of areas, he added.

  • Israel-Palestine war will not affect any economic agreements, UAE

    Israel-Palestine war will not affect any economic agreements, UAE

    The trade minister of the United Arab Emirates has clarified that the Israel war on Gaza will not affect any economic agreements.

    “We don’t mix economy and trade with politics,” Thani al Zeyoudi told reporters in Dubai on Tuesday.

    Amidst the decades long pro-Palestine policy of the Arab world, UAE was the first Gulf country to establish relations with Israel in 2020. Is also the first Arab state to have a free trade agreement with Israel as in March, as the two countries signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

    The recent claim is followed by a statement issued by UAE on October 8, 2023, in which the country strongly condemned Hamas attacks on Israelis, stating that, “attacks by Hamas against Israeli towns and villages near the Gaza strip, including the firing of thousands of rockets at population centers, are a serious and grave escalation.”

    The ministry of foreign affairs was “appalled” by the reports of the abduction of Israeli civilians, calling for the protection of civilians on both sides

    “The UAE remains in close contact with all regional and international partners to swiftly de-escalate the situation and restore calm in Israel and the OPT and a return to negotiations for a final settlement within the parameters of the two state solution for Palestinians and Israelis, who deserve to live in peace and dignity.”, the statement concluded.

  • Pakistani Hajjis to get special perks to make pilgrimage easier

    The Ministry of Religious Affairs has unveiled its Hajj policy for 2024, designed to bring a revolutionary transformation to the pilgrimage journey for Pakistani pilgrims.

    Caretaker Religious Affairs Minister Aneeq Ahmed announced this game-changing policy, which will be presented to the cabinet for approval within the next 10 days.

    The most striking feature is the introduction of a short Hajj option, where pilgrims have the flexibility to go for Hajj from 18 to 30 days, which empowers pilgrims to customise their journey as per their preference.

    QR codes for suitcases

    The new policy also introduces technological advances in which each Hajj pilgrim will be provided with two specially designed suitcases adorned with QR codes. These QR codes will contain essential information such as the pilgrim’s name, passport number, residence, school number, and other pertinent details. This innovation aims to streamline logistics and enhance security during the pilgrimage.

    Special Mobile Package

    In a significant step towards connectivity, the ministry has secured an agreement with a Saudi Arabian mobile phone company to offer a special mobile package exclusively for Hajj pilgrims. Priced at Rs 4,000, it enables pilgrims to make audio and video calls, ensuring they can stay in touch with their families back in Pakistan throughout their Hajj journey.

    Minister Aneeq Ahmed expressed his optimism about these advancements, stating, “Now Pakistani pilgrims will not be lost in the crowd. These changes are designed to simplify the Hajj experience, enhance communication, and provide pilgrims with peace of mind.”

    Additionally, the Saudi government has offered official residences for Pakistani pilgrims, further easing their accommodations during their sacred journey.

  • Tensions rise in India’s Udaipur after murder of Hindu tailor

    Tensions rise in India’s Udaipur after murder of Hindu tailor

    A Hindu tailor was murdered by two Muslim men in Udaipur, India, on June 28. The two men entered the tailor’s shop as customers and then murdered him.

    The man was allegedly killed after he shared a social media post in support of the derogatory remarks made about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma.

    The derogatory comments by Nupur Sharma caused a stir in the Muslim world, inviting condemnation and protest from over 20 Muslim states. There were widespread protests and demonstrations in India, which turned violent in some parts of the country.

    After the murder of the tailor, hundreds of police officials were deployed, and mobile internet was cut off in Udaipur. A partial curfew was also imposed to curb any potential uproar after a video of the attempted beheading of the Hindu tailor went viral.

    Other parts of the Rajasthan state also had their mobile internet access cut off and local authorities issued a month-long ban on four or more people gathering in the state.

    “Both the accused in the killing have been arrested and we will ensure strict punishment and speedy justice,” said Rajashtan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

  • Israeli President visits Turkey to mend ties, Turkey calls it a ‘turning point’

    Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday for a one-day rare visit to Turkey in an effort to mend fractured ties between the two countries.

    Erdogan described the Israeli president’s visit as “historic” and “a turning point” in Turkish-Israeli relations. He said the country is ready to cooperate with Israel in the energy sector, revealing that the Turkish foreign and energy ministers will soon visit Israel.

    In a statement in Hebrew, Herzog said it is a great honour for both countries to lay the foundations of developing friendly relations between them.

    It is pertinent to mention that Ankara has close ties with Hamas. Despite the rare visit, Turkey has ruled out abandoning its commitment to supporting Palestinian statehood.

    Talking about Palestine, Erdogan said, “I underlined the importance we attach to the historical status of Jerusalem and the preservation of the religious identity and sanctity of Masjid Aqsa.” In response, the Israeli president said, “We must agree in advance that we will not agree on everything, that is the nature of relations with a past as rich as ours.”

    This is the first visit of the Israeli president to Ankara since 2007. In 2018, Ankara recalled its diplomats and ordered Israel’s envoy out of the country.

    The visit was made after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s interview in which he called Israel a “potential ally” of the Kingdom.

    In 2020, two Gulf countries— Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates normalised ties with Israel.

  • PM Khan tells ulema sex crimes main evil in Muslim society

    PM Khan tells ulema sex crimes main evil in Muslim society

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan during a discussion with top scholars on how the youth can be protected from the invasion of social media on faith, religious and ethical values said that corruption and sex crime s are two main evils of the Muslim world.

    “There are two sorts of crime in society, one is corruption and the other is a sex crime. Sex crime has risen sharply in our society, i.e. rape and child abuse, and only one per cent of this is reported,” said PM Khan.

    “The other 99 per cent, I believe, society has to fight it. The same is the case with corruption… society has to make corruption unacceptable. Unfor­tunately, when you have leadership which is corrupt over time, they make corruption acceptable,” he said.

    The prime minister stressed the need to save the Muslim youth from being inundated with obscenity and pornographic material available on the internet.

  • PM Imran declared Muslim world’s ‘Man of the Year’ by Jordanian institute

    PM Imran declared Muslim world’s ‘Man of the Year’ by Jordanian institute

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has been declared as “Man of the Year” from the Muslim world, by the Jordan based Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, an official said. “Jordan’s Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre named Prime Minister Imran Khan as ‘Man of the Year’ in its recent list of the most persuasive Muslims in the World”.

    In its latest edition “The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims, 2020″ the center also named American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib as “Woman of the Year”.

    Abdallah Schleifer, who is chief editor of “The Muslim 500” project, while declaring Khan as “Man of the year”, wrote that his quest for peace with neighboring India and his philanthropist work entitled him for the honor. Schleifer is Professor Emeritus of Journalism at the American University in Cairo.

    He added that he was impressed by Khan, launching a successful fund-raising campaign to establish a hospital devoted to treating cancer victims and research.

    Recalling Khan’s first address to the nation as prime minister in August 2018, the author said he genuinely wanted to normalise relations through trade, and settle the Kashmir dispute with India.

    “Khan also wrote three letters to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for dialogue and lasting peace. Modi did not respond,” Schleifer noted.

    The centre also declared the US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, as the most prominent “Muslim Woman of the Year”.

    “American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (Democrat, Michigan) is this year’s Muslim 500 Woman of the Year,” the centre announced.

    She is the first Palestinian-American woman elected to the American Congress, as member of the House of Representatives, Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre said.

    The centre also included other top 50 influential Muslims personalities in its edition. They are Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamid Al-Thani, President Joko Widodo President of Indonesia, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah II Ibn Al-Hussein King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, King Mohammed VI King of Morocco and others.

    Eminent religious scholars Mufti Taqi Usmani and Maulana Tariq Jameel have also been named among the most influential Muslims.

    Maulana Tariq Jameel’s sermons focus on ‘self-purification, avoidance of violence, observance of Allah’s orders and pursuing the way of Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).’ He has been named continuously as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world by the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan from 2013 to 2019.

    In 2019, the religious scholar stood 40th of a list ranking the world’s most “influential” Muslims. The annual publication was compiled by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Jordan and highlights people who are influential as Muslims. The publication defines influential as meaning “any person who has the power to make a change that will have a significant impact on the Muslim World”.

  • Pakistan blamed for spread of coronavirus to Muslim World

    Pakistan blamed for spread of coronavirus to Muslim World

    The first two cases of the new coronavirus in the Gaza Strip — a war-shattered Palestinian territory with a fragile health system — were confirmed in men who attended a mass religious gathering 10 days ago in Pakistan, United States’ (US) National Public Radio (NPR) has quoted an Islamabad-based Palestinian diplomat as saying.

    The diplomat said the men were part of a two-day gathering that ended March 12. The gathering of the Tablighi Jamaat, a global Muslim missionary group, brought together tens of thousands of preachers from some 80 countries and raised concerns about the virus’ spread in Pakistan and beyond.

    The Pakistani authorities had urged for the cancellation of the five-day Tablighi Ijtema congregation hosted annually near Lahore but organisers from the movement had ignored government advice to postpone, The News reported.

    A longtime Pakistani Tablighi Jamaat member, Arif Rana, said the gathering was canceled on March 12 because of rain — attendees sleep in the open. But Azhar Mashwani, focal person to the Punjab chief minister (CM) on digital media, said that it ended because of coronavirus fears.

    Most attendees were Pakistani, but at least a few thousand came from other countries, Rana told NPR.

    Omar al-Tabatibi said his 79-year-old grandfather, Mohammed, and friend Amer Doghmosh had attended the Lahore event.

    Previous statements from health officials had misidentified the men as being between 30 and 40. “My grandfather learnt about the conference by chance from a friend while he was in Pakistan so he wanted to attend,” Tabatibi said.

    After returning from Pakistan, his grandfather stayed several days in Egypt before taking the long journey overland to Gaza, Tabatibi said. “Maybe, my grandfather caught corona in Egypt and not Pakistan, no one knows,” he added.

    Five preachers from Kyrgyzstan stayed in a mosque in Islamabad after attending the Tablighi Jamaat gathering and have also tested positive, said a senior health official who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

    On Twitter, Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat, the deputy commissioner of Islamabad, accused the Kyrgyz group of “criminal carelessness” because “they knew that one of them had symptoms and they kept on roaming around”.

    Concerns have also been raised in Southeast Asia about infection after a Tablighi Jamaat gathering outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in late February and early March. Malaysian media reported that more than half of the country’s known coronavirus cases were traced to the gathering. Preachers who attended also spread the virus to Brunei and Thailand, The New York Times reported, saying the gathering created “the largest known viral vector in Southeast Asia”.

  • Muslim world should build its own market, technologies: Malaysian PM at summit skipped by Imran

    Muslim world should build its own market, technologies: Malaysian PM at summit skipped by Imran

    Muslim-majority countries should build their own markets and produce their own technologies to become self-sufficient, Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) Mahathir Mohammad has said during the ongoing Kuala Lumpur Summit that was skipped by Pakistan.

    “There are 1.7 billion Muslims. Obviously this is a big market if we decide to source our needs from Muslims and Muslim countries. Then we enrich ourselves,” he said while stressing the importance of technological and industrial progress in national development.

    According to Anadolu Agency, the Malaysian premier said that Muslim countries did not have enough products by themselves and had to source most of their needs from other countries, as a result of which money flowed out.

    “When money flows out, we become poor. But if we source, the things that we need from Muslim countries, then obviously our wealth will stay within the Muslim community, and we become richer,” he said.

    “That is why among the things that should solve problems of Muslims is to build a market and produce the things and source them from each other but it is important we learn how to produce our own things,” he added.

    He underlined that Muslim nations “will forever be playing catch-up” with the rest of the developed world “if we do not start creating and developing our own technologies.”

    “We have no choice but to start working on this,” he said.

    The three-day Kuala Lumpur Summit is ongoing in the Malaysian capital with the attendance of hundreds of government officials and representatives from civil society and business sectors from across the Muslim World.

    While the Malaysian premier’s statements are much similar to those made by his Pakistan counterpart, Imran Khan, Islamabad has pulled out of the conference over concerns it could “divide” the Muslim world.

    Pakistan’s Gulf allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had earlier expressed reservations over the country joining the summit, following which Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had confirmed that neither he nor PM Imran would be attending the summit.

    “Pakistan pulled out of the summit due to concerns by Saudi Arabia that the meeting could create a new bloc that would rival the existing 57-member state Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC),” he had said.