People’s Day is a community event which has been designed to increase understanding and to celebrate the diverse communities that make up Brighton & Hove.

People’s Day 2012 will take place on Saturday 14 July as part of the Olympic Torch relay weekend of festivities.

It will be held in Pavilion Gardens, New Road, Jubilee Street, Jubilee Square and Victoria Gardens.

If you are interested in being involved in the day, you can:

• contact Brighton & Hove City Council using the online contact form.
• call Chris Temple on 01273 290767
• e-mail PeoplesDay@brighton-hove.gov.uk
• join in the conversation on Twitter #peoplesday

More on the Event at: brighton-hove.gov.uk.

Can anyone doubt that if there were more than 1,300 hunger strikers in any country in the world other than Palestine, the media in the West would be obsessed with the story?  It would be featured day after day, and reported on from all angles, including the severe medical risks associated with such a lengthy refusal to take food. At this time, two Palestinians who were the first to start this current wave of resistance, Thaer Halaheh and Bilal Diab, entering their 64th day without food, are reported by the prisoner protection association, Addameer, and the NGO, Physician for Human Rights-Israel, to be in critical condition with their lives hanging in the balance.  Despite this dramatic state of affairs there is scant attention in Europe, and literally none in North America.

In contrast, consider the attention that the Western media has devoted to a lone blind Chinese human rights lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, who managed to escape from house arrest in Beijing a few days ago and find a safe haven at the U.S. Embassy. This is an important international incident, to be sure, but is it truly so much more significant than the Palestinian story as to explain the total neglect of the extraordinary exploits of these thousands of Palestinians who are sacrificing their bodies, quite possibly their lives, to nonviolently protest severe mistreatment in the Israeli prison system? Except among their countrymen, and to some extent the region, these many thousand Palestinian prisoners have been languishing within an opaque black box ever since 1967, are denied protection, exist without rights, and cope as best they can without even the acknowledgement of their plight.

There is another comparison to be made. Recall the outpouring of concern and sympathy throughout the West for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was captured on the Gaza border and held captive by Palestinians for five years. A powerful global campaign for his release on humanitarian ground was organized, and received constant reinforcement in the media. World leaders pleaded for his release, and Israeli commanding officers even told IDF fighting forces during the massive attacks on Gaza at the end of 2008, which killed more than 1,450 Palestinians, that their real mission was to free Shalit, or at least hold accountable the entire civilian population of Gaza. When Shalit was finally released in a prisoner exchange a few months ago, there was a brief celebration that abruptly ended when, much to the disappointment of the Israeli establishment, Shalit reported good treatment during captivity. Shalit’s father went further, saying if he was a Palestinian he would have tried to capture Israeli soldiers. Not surprisingly, Shalit, instead of being revered as an Israeli hero, has quietly disappeared from public view.

This current wave of hunger strikes started on April 17th, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, and was directly inspired by the recently completed long and heroic hunger strikes of Khader Adnan (66 days) and Hana Shalabi (43 days) both of whom protested against the combination of administrative detention and abusive arrest and interrogation procedures. It should be understood that administrative detention is validated by secret evidence and allows Israel to imprison Palestinians for six months at a time without bringing any criminal charges, with terms renewable as they expire. Hana Shalabi was among those released in the prisoner exchange, but then barely recovering from her prior detention period, was rearrested in a night arrest raid, and sentenced once again to a term of confinement for four months. Or consider the experience of Thaer Halahla, eight times subject to administrative detention for a total of six and a half years.

More on this article at: foreignpolicyjournal.com.

Article by: Richard Falk

A London university is considering establishing alcohol-free zones on its campuses because so many of its students consider drinking to be immoral.

Professor Malcolm Gillies, vice-chancellor of London Metropolitan University, said the selling of alcohol was an issue of “cultural sensitivity” at his institution where a fifth of students are Muslim.

Speaking to a conference of university administrators in Manchester, he said that for many students, drinking alcohol was “an immoral experience”.

“Because there is no majority ethnic group [at London Metropolitan], I think [selling alcohol] is playing to particular parts of our society much more [than to others],” he was reported as saying in the Times Higher Education magazine.

He said he saw little reason for the university to subsidise a student bar on campus when there were “at least half a dozen pubs within 200m”.

He told the Guardian the makeup of his institution had changed considerably over the past few decades. In the past it had been “substantially Anglo Saxon – now 20% of our students are Muslim,” he said.

“We therefore need to rethink how we cater for that 21st-century balance. For many students now, coming to university is not about having a big drinking experience. The university bar is not as used as it used to be.”

Gillies also told the conference that universities needed to be more cautious in their portrayal of sex than in the past.

“We’ve got a younger generation that are often exceedingly conservative, and we need to be much more cautious about sex too,” he said. Many female Muslim students were taken to university by a close male relative. “Their student experience is going to be different from someone who is gorging out in the Chocoholics Society or someone who is there to have a … libidinous time.

“How will we service the changing balance of our students unless we ourselves evolve?”

Alaa Alsamarrai, the vice-president of student affairs for the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, said Muslim students wanted universities to be inclusive so that students “from all walks of life can come and share experiences”.

“Alcohol is a barrier to many Muslim students participating in freshers’ events and often in society activities, so we are in support of moves to have alcohol-free zones and events,” she said. “However, if a student wants to drink, we don’t want to ban them from doing that.”

Research published in 2008 by academics at the universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York shows that a student’s alcohol consumption declines over the course of his or her studies. The researchers found 90% of students consume alcohol at least once a week, which is broadly in line with the general population.

More on this article at Guardian.co.uk. Article by: Jessica Shepherd

I was unable to take my mother on the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, so I did what I thought would be the next best thing: I took her to the British Museum’s hajj exhibition

It has long been my mother’s ambition to complete the hajj. The pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam – and thus an obligation for all Muslims. My father often talked about going to Mecca and my parents were planning a trip. He sadly died suddenly from a heart attack in 1995 and in the years since my mother talked often about her desire to make the pilgrimage, and both my brother and I repeatedly promised that we would take her. We never did.

Although I had grown up with images of the hajj, actually going to Mecca never felt like a priority to me: I worried about the heat, the crowds and I had selfish reasons for nervousness about the ritual where men have the hair shaved off their heads. And then my mother had a stroke and now, at the age of 78, she has trouble walking on her own and is no longer physically strong enough to withstand the great heat and huge crowds who assemble in Mecca. I have always felt guilty about not having taken my mum to Mecca when she was fitter and so when I heard about the British Museum’s hajj exhibition I was determined to take her there. It wasn’t Mecca but perhaps it would be the next best thing.

Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam is the first British show devoted to the pilgrimage and it charts the history of the hajj through space and time. I visited the exhibition with both my mother and my wife Bridget and, perhaps inevitably, we all had different responses to the maps, objects and artefacts. My mother was most animated by the footage of pilgrims leaving on ships in the sub-continent bound for Saudi Arabia. She started telling me stories of men who had left her village near Lahore, heading to Mecca on foot. She was also deeply moved to see the clothes that pilgrims wore – the white robes that imply that in Mecca all Muslims no matter the gender, skin colour or social status are equal. Bridget – raised in a culture where spirituality was more often associated with solitude – was intrigued by a version of spirituality where one is buoyed up on a sea of humanity.

As for myself, I experienced a range of reactions. There was a part of me – the part that recalls seeing images of the hajj hung on the walls of so many of my parents’ friends’ houses – that enjoyed learning more about the stories behind the hajj. Listening to my mother explain the origins of the holy Zam Zam water and the ritual of throwing stones at the devil was to be reminded that for Muslims of her generation Islam consists mostly of stories told through the ages. Many of those stories – and rituals – actually predated Islam – something only touched upon in the exhibition.

More on this article at Guardian.co.uk. Article by: Sarfraz Manzoor

Hamza Kashgari is sent back to Saudi Arabia where lawyers fear he could face the death penalty over Twitter remark

Malaysian authorities have deported a young Saudi journalist accused of insulting the prophet Muhammad on Twitter, a police official said.

The move came despite concerns from rights groups that he may be persecuted at home.

The Jeddah-based newspaper columnist Hamza Kashgari was detained on Thursday upon his arrival in Malaysia. Some Saudis have reportedly made death threats against him or called for him to face criminal charges over remarks he tweeted that many considered offensive.

The national police spokesman Ramli Yoosuf told the Associated Press that the 23-year-old was handed over to Saudi officials and flown back on Sunday morning. Flight arrangements were handled by the Saudi authorities, he said.

The Malaysian home minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said any charges against Kashgari were a matter for the Saudi Arabian authorities.

Muhammad Afiq Mohamad Nor, a lawyer appointed by Kashgari’s family, said the move was unlawful because he had obtained a court order to block the deportation. He said he had not been informed by police and was still verifying if the Saudi had indeed been sent back.

“We are concerned that he would not face a fair trial back home and that he could face the death penalty if he is charged with apostasy,”

the lawyer told the AP.

Amnesty International has called Kashgari a prisoner of conscience and called for his release.

Human Rights Watch said Saudi clerics had condemned Kashgari as an apostate who must face punishment. The rights group had urged Malaysia to allow him to seek asylum.

Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur (Guardian.co.uk)

Eid Mubarak to everyone. May Allah accept your fasting and reward you for it.

Eid prayers inshAllah will take place tomorrow (30th of August 2011) at:

Al-Medinah Mosque - 08:30am & 09:30am

Shah Jallal Mosque - 09:15am & 10:00am

Islam emphasises love, kindness and mercy between spouses. Hopefully this contract will make that more of a reality for women

It is no surprise that household chores are the bane of many marriages, and the competing demands of modern life have compounded this situation for women in particular. Who, then, wouldn’t jump at the chance to sign a marriage contract that potentially exempts women from wiping up vomit and scraping hair out of the plughole? Yet most people gasp with shock when I explain to them that Muslim women are able to stipulate such conditions in their marriage contracts – and that Islamic law sanctions this choice. Far greater coverage is afforded to the issue of forced marriages (which are strongly opposed by Islam and also take place in other minority communities) as well as the oppressive treatment – both real and perceived – of Muslim women who are in consensual marriages. Such stories fly in the face of Islamic teachings, which emphasise love, kindness and mercy between spouses.

Last Friday, I attended the relaunch of an initiative that aims to bridge the lacuna between the rights Muslim women have in theory, and the deprivation of these rights that some of them experience in practice. The new Muslim marriage contract, which was originally launched in 2008 after four years of extensive research and consultation, revives Islamic opinions that are more consonant with the spirit of egalitarianism. It was drafted by Muslim Institute trustees Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui and Mufti Barkatullah, as well as Muslim Women’s Network chair Cassandra Balchin, and has also acquired a new website.

The main reforms include removing the requirement for a wali (marriage guardian) for the bride, who, as an adult, can make up her own mind about whom to marry; enabling the wife to initiate divorce and retain all her financial rights agreed in the marriage contract; and encouraging mosques to register to perform marriages (so that they are automatically recognised in British law without a separate civil ceremony). As Siddiqui explained at Friday’s event, he was aware of only a handful of mosques who have registered their premises so far.

Of course, no amount of paperwork will provide a miracle cure for any arrangement that is entered into with less than noble intentions. However, the Muslim marriage contract ensures a higher standard of redress for women caught up in these situations. It also provides an excellent negotiating tool for thorny issues that can throw even the most idealistic couples, such as financial management, where to live, and contact with extended family on both sides (as Heidi Withers discovered when her prospective stepmother-in-law unfairly chastised her for being “uncouth” in an email that recently went viral).

More on this article at Guardian.co.uk. Article by: Tehmina Kazi

To a radical few, Osama bin Laden was a hero – but mainstream Muslims will remember him as a rebel who lost his way

British Muslims seduced by extremist forms of Islam have celebrated Osama bin Laden as a spiritual and military warrior.

In his suicide video address, Mohammad Siddique Khan, the leader of the bombers who attacked London on 7 July 2005, said he prayed God would raise him up to join “today’s heroes, like our beloved Sheikh Osama bin Laden”.

In public, Abu Hamza, the hook-handed preacher who once held sway over dozens of committed jihadists, including the shoe bomber Richard Reed, praised Bin Laden and his actions.

Like other Islamist leaders in the UK, Hamza used Bin Laden’s life story – the millionaire who gave up everything to fight jihad – as a recruiting tool to inspire young British men who may have seen themselves as living in a privileged society without spiritual purpose.

But in private, the picture wasn’t always so positive. According to one former London radical, Hamza had private doubts about the Saudi jihadist’s actions.

The debate among Islamist radicals in the years after 9/11 centred on whether Bin Laden was right to use Afghanistan as a launchpad to attack the west, or whether it would have been better to leave the country to grow into a fully fledged Islamic state under the Taliban.

A few years after 9/11, Hamza believed Bin Laden was tactically wrong to have attacked America, and that he should have given himself up to the international community to stop the Taliban from being overthrown.

In the days after September 11, Omar Bakri, the former leader of the now banned al-Muhajiroun group, based in Britain, is said to have prevaricated “like a feather in the wind” on whether the 9/11 attacks were halal or haram – permitted or prohibited – under Islamic law.

But Anjem Choudary, the former number two in al-Muhajrioun, said Bin Laden was “a modern-day hero”. “I believe he is loved by all Muslims,” he said. “He stood for the struggle, a symbol of resistance.”

Choudary said al-Muhajiroun often used Bin Laden “as an advertising ploy” to attract those who had heard about 9/11 and might want to know more.

“Sheikh Osama was the emir [leader] for people who want to franchise themselves to al-Qaida,” he said.

Among mainstream Muslims, says Inayat Bunglawala, chair of Muslims4UK, the picture is also complicated. Bunglawala used to be a supporter of Bin Laden’s but says that, after Afghanistan won its freedom from the USSR, Bin Laden turned to the “dark side”.

“Bin Laden used to be admired because he was from the wealthy family [but] turned his back on luxury to fight the Soviets,” said Bunglawala. “But after 1991, he developed the idea of a war with the US. He went over to the dark side, from someone who was opposing Soviet aggression to someone who thought killing innocent civilians was an appropriate response to US misdeeds.”

“Today, in those circles where al-Qaida are viewed as heroes, he will be viewed as a martyr,” added Bunglawala. “But to mainstream Muslims, he’ll be seen as someone who started off with good intentions but dramatically lost his way.”

More on this article at Guardian.co.uk. Article by: Shiv Malik