Muslims being the second largest group in Glasgow are going to be able to hear the call to prayer (adhan) throughout Ramadhan thanks to the Commonwealth games. Glasgow Central Mosque is going to be able to air the adhan, or Muslim call to prayer, every evening for the athletes competing in the Commonwealth Games, following a decision by the city council to cater to hundreds of Muslims visiting the city during the holy month of Ramadhan.
The 2014 Commonwealth Games, officially the XX Commonwealth Games, will last for 11 days and will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom from 23 July to 3 August 2014. Approximately 400 athletes and supporting staff will be fasting, so upon hearing the adhan for the sunset prayer, they can begin to eat and break the fast. “We are trying to cater not just for the Muslim athletes, but their families, Games officials, media and visitors who will be in the city,” Nabeel Sheikh, general secretary of Glasgow Central Mosque, was reported as saying.
BRAZILIANS ANSWER CALL TO ISLAM DURING WORLD CUP
As the World Cup tournament goes on, many Brazilians reverted to Islam. Choosing to accept the message of the world’s fastest growing faith in the land of samba, a growing number of Brazilians have answered the call to Islam. “In Sao Paulo, Cesar, who was very interested in Islam had been coming to speak to us at the Dawah table every day during the world cup,” Mission Dawah from the British Islamic Education and Research Academy wrote on their Facebook page. “Cesar then took that decision to embrace Islam, to be one who submits himself to God, to be Muslim.” Another couple of Brazilians took the Shahadah after meeting the IERA team.
PHILIPPINES ASSURES MUSLIMS OF AUTONOMY BY JANUARY
Philippine President Benigno Aquino on 27 June assured the country’s largest Muslim group that a new autonomous government will be in place by January 2015 in the south, a commitment made under a peace accord signed this year. The largely Roman Catholic Philippines signed an agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in March ending nearly five decades of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, displaced two million and stunted growth in the resource-rich region.
Under the pact, the MILF agreed to disband its guerrilla force, surrender weapons and rebuild communities while the government gives them wider powers to control their economy and culture. It took almost 17 years for the Philippines to reach a deal with MILF in negotiations brokered by Malaysia.
BUDDHIST EXTREMISTS ATTACK MODERATE MONKS IN SRI LANKA
Buddhist Monks who are speaking out against the extremist Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) group in Sri Lanka are being beaten, stripped naked and left unconscious for participating in interfaith meeting with Muslims. According to media reports, the BBS has denied being behind an assault on moderate monk Wataraka Vijitha Thero, who was found in the district of Panadura undressed with several cuts on his body.
Wataraka Vijitha Thero is a vocal critic of the BBS, whose rally in a southern town triggered deadly anti-Muslim riots on Sunday night where four people were killed. Thero had openly made statements supporting Muslims and complained to the police that he was being threatened.
JUDGE WHO SENTENCED SADDAM HUSSEIN ‘EXECUTED’
Several press reports have claimed that rebels loyal to the self-styled ISIL have captured and executed Raouf Abdel Rahman who sentenced former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to death in 2006. “Iraqi revolutionaries arrested him and sentenced him to death in retaliation for the death of the martyr Saddam Hussein,” said Jordanian lawmaker Khalill Attieh on his Facebook page, reports said on 24 June.
The reports were first made by Britain’s Daily Mail which said that the killing of Abdel Rahman was because of his sentencing of Saddam to death. According to the report, the Iraqi government has not confirmed the killing of the judge, but officials had also not denied reports that he was captured last week.
CAR FACTIONS TAKE STEP TOWARDS PEACE
The two main factions in the Central African Republic’s inter-communal conflict have taken a tentative step towards ending violence that has killed thousands and forced more than a million people to flee their homes. The mainly Muslim ex-rebel Seleka coalition and the Christian militias known as anti-balaka set up a joint committee of six members each on 26 June to prepare for peace talks under the auspices of conflict-resolution group PARETO.
The committee represents a second step after the two sides held an initial meeting this month, according to Béni Kouyaté, vice-coordinator of PARETO. Few concrete details of the talks have emerged but both sides reportedly said they were optimistic they could lead to something substantial.
PALESTINIANS PARADE IN JERUSALEM TO WELCOME RAMADHAN
Palestinians marched on streets of East Jerusalem in traditional clothes late on 26 June in a festival to welcome the month of Ramadhan, when the faithful abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk. Hundreds of Palestinian Muslims attended the ceremony to mark the upcoming fasting month, marching from Salah ad-Din Street to the Damascus gate. Participants carried banners reading “God Bless Our Jerusalem, Show Respect Your Elderly, Love Your Children,” as they walked and sing traditional songs.
Anna Natch, one of the organisers and member of Ahy Al-Quds Club, said the purpose of the march is to show to the Israelis that Jerusalem is the land of Muslims. “We are the real residents of Jerusalem even though the Jewish people claim the opposite,” said Natch.
IVORY COAST PRESIDENT OFFERS FOOD, MONEY FOR RAMADHAN
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara has offered to contribute large quantities of rice and sugar – along with hard cash – to the nation’s Muslims ahead of the fasting month of Ramadhan. “It’s a traditional gesture that the president makes each year before Ramadhan,” government spokesman Kone Nabagné Bruno reportedly said on 24 June.
Ouattara, 72, who was elected president in 2011, is a practising Muslim, while his French-born wife, Dominique, is a Catholic. The president’s donation will include four tons of rice, four tons of sugar and $3000 in cash, which will be distributed to the less fortunate, especially widows and widowers, according to the Superior Counsel of Imams (COSIM), the country’s main Islamic association.
CRIMEA DECLARES EID AS OFFICIAL HOLIDAY
Crimea has declared the Muslim festival of Eid an official holiday during a session of the Crimean Parliament on 25 June. The move is likely to appease Crimea’s native Tatar community, who make up around 13% of the overall population with a 300,000-strong community.
As Muslims, they celebrate two Eid festivals every year, one being to mark the end of the month of Ramadhan, and the other to signify the end of the Hajj pilgrimage season. Seventy-two lawmakers voted in favour of the move, as well as supporting the Orthodox Easter and Trinity also being declared official holidays.