It has been revealed that the remains of dozens of Palestinians killed during the Israeli-Arab in 1948 were found in six mass graves in the Jaffa district of Tel Aviv on 27 August. The graves were found when the ground subsided as builders carried out renovation work in the area, an official at the Muslim cemetery there was reported as saying. The bodies are believed to belong to the victims of a massacre carried out by right-wing Jewish militias in the former Arab district. As-Safri newspaper reported that up to 200 bodies may be in the graves, with an unknown additional number in the other graves.
FILES SHOW HOW US AGREED TO ISRAEL’S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
Declassified documents from 45 years ago have revealed how cabinet secretaries and senior advisers to the then US president Richard Nixon withdrew from a plan to block Israeli nuclearisation ahead of a meeting with then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir at the White House in September 1969. The files, that were made public by the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP), not only shows how American delegates agreed to Israel’s refusal to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but also how they came to terms with allowing Israel to refuse an American inspection of the Dimona nuclear facility and a deal which would have seen the delivery of strategic ground-to-ground Jericho missiles to Israel in exchange for their signing of the treaty.
WIFE OF IMPRISONED AIDE TO EGYPT’S MORSI BRINGS CASE TO U.N.
The Canadian wife of an ex-aide to Egyptian Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, whose husband has been detained more than 400 days in solitary confinement, says she has brought a case to the United Nations this week, seeking support for his release. Khaled al-Qazzaz, secretary to Morsi on foreign affairs, was arrested in July 2013 along with the elected president and eight other senior aides when Morsi was overthrown by the army. His wife, Sarah Attia, says his case is symptomatic of a broader malaise in Egyptian society.
EX-JERUSALEM MUFTI BLAMES DICTATORSHIPS FOR RISE IN EXTREMISM
Ikrima Sabri, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem and imam of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, has said that dictatorships in Arab countries have pushed some Muslims to ‘extreme measures’. Speaking at the World Muslim Scholars Union meeting in Turkey’s Istanbul, Sabri accused Arab dictatorships and a lack of initiatives by Muslim scholars in tackling the problem of extremism for its rise.
‘Extremism is a result of pressure from the dictatorships of administrations and scholars not doing their jobs properly,’ Sabri said, calling on more hard work by scholars to teach authentic Islam in order to curb extremism.
MUSLIMS TO OPEN FIRST MOSQUE IN ALASKA
The U.S. state of Alaska is due to get its first mosque in the town of Anchorage. The small Muslim community in the town have for years been performing congregational prayers in a rented space in a shopping mall, but the growing number of Muslims in the area left them will no choice but to search for a bigger space.
After years of fundraising, the four-year construction of the state’s first mosque is now near completion. The two-storey mosque will cater for both men and women, and will also include classrooms, offices and a library for the benefit of local Muslims who have migrated from all over the world.
ISLAMIC COUNCIL TO EXPAND SOCIAL SERVICES IN ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia’s Islamic Affairs Supreme Council on 26 August announced plans to expand social services across the Horn of Africa country. This was disclosed at a meeting organised by the council to discuss means of expanding social services in health and education, among other sectors, through the Awalia Aid and Development Organisation. “The organisation will strive to expand education service at all levels – kindergarten to college level – and work towards increasing health service coverage through building new health facilities and upgrading existing ones,” organisation manager Se’id Asmare said.
“Awalia will work towards the success of the country’s efforts to distribute education service among all citizens and help the public get access to improved health services,” he added.
INDIAN SCHOLAR NAMED FOR YTI CHAIR IN ISLAMIC FINANCE
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) has appointed Dr Mohammed Obaidullah as its 2nd Yayasan Tun Ismail (YTI) Chair Professor in Islamic Finance. Dr Obaidullah currently serves the Jeddah-based Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group as a Senior Economist and is widely known for his scholarly contribution to the field the Islamic economics and finance. He leads an on-going project at IRTI-IDB to author and publish an annual Islamic Social Finance Report in association with Thomson Reuters, which seeks to bridge the information gap in the global zakah, awqaf, Islamic cooperative, not-for-profit and microfinance sectors.
The Yayasan Tun Ismail Mohamed Ali Berdaftar (YTI) Chair in Islamic Finance is the result of a strategic partnership between Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) and Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) through Yayasan Tun Ismail (YTI). Prof Dr Zamir Iqbal, Head, Islamic Finance Centre, the World Bank was the maiden holder of this Chair during 2013-14.