SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The "Welcome to Palestine" delegation, comprising 60 French members and 25 Egyptians, along with Belgian and US citizens, entered Gaza through the besieged enclave’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Thursday, AFP reported.

"I am very excited, very very happy, because this is the first time we succeeded in entering," said the mission’s head, Olivia Zemor of the French pro-Palestinian group, EuroPalestine.

The mission, which said had brought medicines, medical supplies, books, and sweets to Gaza for the holiday season, was prevented from entering the territory in 2009 by the former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.

"Israel of course never wanted us to come here because we are in solidarity with the Palestinians. We are active for Palestine; for Palestinian prisoners, for the boycott of Israeli goods and for the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine; Gaza the West Bank and Palestinian refugees," Zemor said.

The Welcome to Palestine mission plans to stay in the enclave until January 1.

Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.- www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Abna

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) - A group of pro-Palestinian activists, mainly French and Egyptian, have entered the Gaza Strip through Egypt to deliver humanitarian aid to the Tel Aviv-blockaded coastal sliver.

The "Welcome to Palestine" delegation, comprising 60 French members and 25 Egyptians, along with Belgian and US citizens, entered Gaza through the besieged enclave’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Thursday, AFP reported.

"I am very excited, very very happy, because this is the first time we succeeded in entering," said the mission’s head, Olivia Zemor of the French pro-Palestinian group, EuroPalestine.

The mission, which said had brought medicines, medical supplies, books, and sweets to Gaza for the holiday season, was prevented from entering the territory in 2009 by the former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.

"Israel of course never wanted us to come here because we are in solidarity with the Palestinians. We are active for Palestine; for Palestinian prisoners, for the boycott of Israeli goods and for the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine; Gaza the West Bank and Palestinian refugees," Zemor said.

The Welcome to Palestine mission plans to stay in the enclave until January 1.

Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.- www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Press TV

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -  Hopes of ending nearly 50 years of war between Colombia and the Marxist FARC rebels have entered a new phase as the warring sides returned to the negotiating table to continue peace talks.

The meeting on Tuesday in the Cuban capital Havana saw Jesus Santrich, negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), voicing optimism over a petition sent to US President Barack Obama requesting pardon for leader Simon Trinidad to participate in the peace process.

"We don't want to lose faith, hope that President Barack Obama is going to give a message of peace for Colombia by favouring the request," Santrich added.

Trinidad is currently being held in the US on charges for kidnapping three US military contractors in 2008. Despite FARC’s continual calls for his release, it remains unclear whether he will be granted permission to take part in the talks.

Santrich noted that FARC negotiators and the government had already agreed to support a broad forum in the Colombian capital Bogota in December to discuss agrarian development, which has been an issue in the class-based conflict.

Upon entering the seventh day of talks at a convention centre in Havana, Santrich said: “Up until now we have had good results: “There has been agreement ... We are on the same wavelength.''

The topics agreed upon for discussion hold numerous potential stumbling blocks, land reform among them, along with decisions on which FARC leaders will be allowed to participate in politics and who must go to jail for the group's crimes and involvement in the drug trade.

Participants say the forum agreement is significant because it means both sides have accepted a basic framework for the negotiations centered upon six themes including land reform, victim compensation, drug trafficking and reinsertion of the rebels into society.

FARC and government delegations announced on Sunday their first accord reached in Havana to create a citizen participation forum on agricultural development due to meet in Bogota December 17 to 19.

The development gave FARC leaders more room to showcase progress in the peace process. 

"I think the document produced on the 25th is a good sign that [the negotiations] are on the right track, as I said a few days ago, and with concrete results," Santrich added.

Agricultural and land reform is a central tenet for the FARC which emerged as a communist agrarian movement intent on overturning Colombia's long history of social inequality.

Last week, in a sign welcomed by war-weary Colombians and politicians alike, the guerilla group called a two-month unilateral ceasefire, the first truce in more than a decade.

Although the government reiterated its position that it would not halt military operations until a final peace deal is signed.

The two sides are expected to break for Christmas, and restart talks in January armed with a report on the forum's findings.

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the City Montessori School in Lucknow, India, has 39,437 pupils and 2,500 teachers.

Lucknow, the capital city of India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh, is now home to the world’s biggest school, according to the new edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. The last academic year, 2,500 teachers taught a mind-boggling 39,437 students in 1,000 classrooms at Lucknow’s City Montessori School. According to the school’s website, it now boasts over 44,000 pupils.

The school was founded in 1959 by Bharti and Jagdish Gandhi with just 300 borrowed rupees ($5.70 at current exchange rates) and a total of five students. More than half a century later, the school, which spreads over several campuses, can’t gather for assembly as there is no venue in town that is big enough. Students ages between three and 17 are divided into classrooms of 45 children each; every pupil wears identical school uniforms, AFP reports. Younger students pay about $18, older students $47 in fees per month. The school held the record once before, in 2005, when it had 29,212 pupils — beating a school in the Philippines with roughly 20,000 pupils.

Uttar Pradesh is in dire need of schools. The Northern state has a literacy rate below India’s national average of 74% and ranks 29th among India’s 35 administrative divisions, according to the 2011 census. Lucknow’s City Montessori School not only excels in size, it has over the years been showered in awards and recognition. In 2002, it received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. Two years ago, the Dalai Lama conferred his Hope for Humanity award to the school founder.

The size of the Gandhis school, which does not receive government funding, is however dwarfed by the world’s largest university, also in India. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in Delhi has no less than four million students — ten times larger than its U.S. equivalent, the online University of Phoenix.

India, a country of extremes, boasts some other, more obscure, records: nowhere have there been more people standing on one moving motorcycle (54), has a larger foreign object been left in a patient (a pair of 13 inch-long artery forceps) or a higher number of green coconuts been smashed in one minute by elbows (92, 7 of which were disqualified).— www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Time

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — When the matchmaker turned up at her house, 13-year-old Rehana Begum knew something was wrong. Shortly afterwards, an unknownwoman smiled at her from the doorway; her worst fears were confirmed. Her parents were planning to marry her off.

Rehana, a class six student at a secondary school in Nilphamari district in northern Bangladesh, was well aware of the likely consequences of early marriage – an end to school, isolation from her friends and a life of hard work at her in-laws. But she also knew outright rebellion was out of the question. In the poverty-stricken, deeply conservative northern districts of Bangladesh, children defer to elders.

Fortunately for Rehana, she knew exactly who to call: the district's vaunted "wedding busters", a movement consisting of 11 groups of around 20 youngsters, campaigning against child marriage.

Arriving home from school the next day, Rehana found the group talking to her mother, who remained belligerent. "Who will help us find a nice boy when she gets older?" she demanded. "And who will protect Rehana on her way to school?"

The children are well versed in handling such scenarios; they don't argue, but methodically list the evils of child marriage. "We can't force them to listen to us," said Antara Tabassum, 16, one of the leaders of the child protection group in Nilphamari's Jaldhaka Upazila sub-district. "All we can do is show them that child marriage is a curse."

The intervention of such groups is a key reason why all 11 of Jaldhaka's unions or local councils have been able to declare their respective localities "child marriage-free zones" – no mean feat in a country where almost one in three children is married off before turning 15. According to Unicef data, 74% of Bangladeshi girls are married before the legal age of 18.

"Child marriages are a significant obstacle to development in Bangladesh," said Myrna Evora, country director of Plan Bangladesh, a children's charity that campaigns against early marriage. "Early andforced marriage often drives girls into a cycle of poverty and powerlessness. They tend to miss out on an education, suffer from poor health and give birth to children who are also weak and malnourished."

It has taken years of hard work for Jaldhaka to buck the national trend. "The wedding busters succeed because it is part of a community-based, bottom-up approach," said Shamsul Haq, a local council chairman. "We bring together the government, elected representatives and NGOs like Plan Bangladesh, and work with a comprehensive approach. You can't defeat something like this with heavy-handed law enforcement."

Although Bangladesh passed the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Ordinance in 1984, making it illegal for males under 21 and females under 18 to marry, enforcement remains lax.

Experts say there is widespread ignorance about the health consequences of early marriage. Child brides become part of a vicious cycle of chronic malnutrition and are at high risk of death during childbirth. According to Unicef's State of the World's Children 2011 report(pdf), girls who become pregnant before the age of 16 are three to four times likelier to die giving birth than women in their 20s.

"Most child brides become mothers while they are children themselves," said Dr Mahbub Hasan, a surgeon at the district hospital in Nilphamari. "Because their bodies are not fully formed, they're at risk of prolonged or obstructed labour. This threatens the lives of both mother and child. Early marriage is hampering our efforts to bring down maternal and child mortality."

In Bangladesh, the problem of child marriage is rooted in complex socio-economic factors. Girls from poor families are likelier to become child brides and go on to raise children in poverty. Yet the entrenched and illegal dowry system – where a bride's family pays significant sums to the groom – encourages the marriage of adolescent girls, because younger brides typically require smaller dowries.

Experts point to girls' education as by far the most important weapon against child marriage. The government, with support from the World Bank, has been giving small cash transfers or stipends to encourage girls to stay in school. According to a World Bank study, the overall proportion of females who married in stipend project areas declined between 1992 and 1995, from 29% to 14% for 13 to 15-year-olds, and from 72% to 64% for 16- to 19-year-olds.

"Education is crucial to combat child marriage," says Evora, whose organisation is launching a five-year campaign, coinciding with the international day of the girl on 11 October, to stop child marriage. "We've also done important work in promoting birth registration and marriage registration in the Nilphamari area, with very encouraging results. Nowadays kazis, or marriage registrars, are demanding proof that brides are above 18."

Since child brides are often isolated from their network of friends and family, the wedding busters go from village to village, holding courtyard meetings and staging amateur plays.

With direct access to the local council chairperson and even the police chief, they can call in the big guns if necessary. "The kids can stop 50% of child marriages by themselves. In the rest of the cases, we get involved," said Ehsan Chanu, former chairman of Mirganj local council.

In Jaldhaka, after an hour of pleading and cajoling, the children have persuaded Rehana Begum's mother, Dilara, to relent. Tears flow as she recalls her own early marriage. "You're right. Rehana should study and have a better life than I did," she says. "I'll talk to her dad." For Nilphamari's wedding busters, it's another "bride" saved.

.www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Waking up early in the morning, tens of thousands of Muslims in northwest China's Qinghai Province flocked to mosques on Saturday, August 18, to celebrate `Eid Al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

"This is one of the most sacred and honorable festivals for our Muslims," Ma Guoqing, a villager of Taerwan Village in the Hui-Tu Autonomous County of Datong in northwest China's Qinghai Province, told Xinhua news agency.

Like thousands of Chinese Muslims in the province, Ma, 57, got up at 6 am, washed himself and cleaned his house for the celebration of `Eid Al-Fitr.

`Eid Mubarak! (Special Coverage)

Muslims Celebrate `Eid Al-Fitr Sunday

He also donned his new festival outfits and joined over 4,200 others at the local mosque to welcome the first day of fast-breaking festival.

Elsewhere in Dongguan Mosque, located in the provincial capital of Xining, more than 150,000 Muslims filed into to attend the fast-breaking service and hear imams preach.

Due to different religious sects, Qinghai starts `Eid celebrations on Saturday.

Other Muslim-populated regions, including Xinjiang and Ningxia, will celebrate the festival on Sunday.

`Eid Al-Fitr is one the two main Islamic religious festivals along with `Eid Al-Adha.

During `Eid days, families and friends exchange visits to express well wishes and children, wearing new clothes bought especially for `Eid, enjoy going out in parks and open fields.

After special prayers to mark `Eid Al-Fitr, festivities and merriment start with visits to the homes of friends and relatives.

Traditionally, everyone wears new clothes for `Eid, and the children look forward to gifts and the traditional `ediya (cash).

Charity

Engaging the poor in `Eid festivities, Dongguan mosque has set up three donation sites to collect zakat money for the poor.

"Giving to charity is a merit for Muslims," said Ma Yong'an, who is in charge of one donation site in Dongguan Mosque, adding that his site can collect about 1,000 yuan (157 US dollars) every day.

The Zakat should be given during the holy fasting month of Ramadan any time but before the `Eid prayer.

"Ramadan and the fast-breaking festival can purify the souls of the Muslims and strengthen their respect for Allah," said Mian Weizhong, a professor at Qinghai Normal University.

Atheist China recognizes five religions — Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Taoism and Buddhism — and tightly regulates their administration and practice.

According to official data, China has 22 million Muslims, most of them are concentrated in Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai regions and provinces.

Smaller Muslim communities can also be found throughout interior China.

Unofficially, Muslim groups say the number is even higher, stating that there are from 65-100 million Muslims in China — up to 7.5 percent of the population.—www.shafaqna.com/english

Source: On Islam

SHAFAQNA (Shia international News Association) — Reverting to Islam six months ago, Mangat Ram, now Ali Abdullah, is fasting for the first time in his life.

“I am very excited to observe fasting, which will be a new experience altogether for me,” Abdullah told OnIslam.net.

The 34-year-old, who hails from Thar desert of southern Sindh province, embraced Islam In January, although he had been reading the Noble Qur’an and Islamic literature for the past year.

Ramadan 1433… With Hardship Comes Ease

Spiritual Ramadan on OnIslam.net

“I spent last Ramadan with Muslims (he was a Hindu at that time) in a shelter camp after heavy rains and flashfloods washed away our houses and livestock last year,” Abdullah, who is attending a “Welcome Ramadan” classes organized by Dars-e-Quran network, a literary organization that works for Qur’an education in Pakistan, recalled.

“However, by that time, I unfortunately could not find out the real path, and missed out the blessings of Ramadan,” added the father of three.

“But this time, I am ready with full conviction to observe fasting.”

Abdullah’s wife and his three children have also reverted to Islam a few months ago after he left the shelter camp for his hometown.

Abdullah and his family had taken shelter in a shelter camp set up by Al-Khidmat Foundation in the outskirts of Karachi, the commercial hub of Pakistan, after heavy rains and flashfloods hit the  lower parts of Sindh province during last monsoons.

“I was marveled by zeal and energy of my Muslim brothers, who used to fast but continue to serve us throughout the day,” Abdullah said.

“It was almost unbelievable for me,” he said, referring to relief and rescue operation by Islamic charities in the rain- and flood-hit areas, which saved thousands of lives last year.

“I was really inspired by the way we had been treated in the shelter camps as we belonged to lower (Hindu) caste, and even upper-class Hindus hardly bothered about us,” said Abdullah, who took three more months after he left the camp to say his Shahadah along with his family at a local mosque.

In Ramadan, adult Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.

The sick and those traveling are exempt from fasting especially if it poses health risks.

Fasting is meant to teach Muslims patience, self-control and spirituality, and time during the holy month is dedicated for getting closer to Allah though prayers, reading the Noble Qur’an and good deeds.

Ramadan Excitement

Abdul Rehman, formerly known as Bhagwan Das, is also excited about his Ramadan fasting experience.

“This will Inshaullah be my second Ramadan,” Abdul Rehman, who also hails from Thar area, told OnIslam.net.

“But I am more excited this time because I did not know much about the importance and benefits of fasting.”

Abdul Rehman, a peasant, had reverted to Islam during Ramadan last year at a shelter camp of Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation in Badin district.

He had observed fasting for a few times as he embraced Islam in the last week of the holy fasting month.

“I had little knowledge about Islam and Ramadan at that time,” said the father of five.

“I did fast, but frankly speaking, there was lack of conviction and understanding.

“But, I have read much about Islam during last one year, and now I exactly know the significance of Ramadan for a Muslim.”

Thousands of Hindus and Christians took shelter in camps set up by Al-Khidmat Foundation, Jammat-ud-Dawa’h’s Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, Maymar Trust, Alamgir Welfare Trust, and Edhi Foundation in five worst-hit districts of Sindh, the second largest province in Pakistan.

Hundreds of Hindus have embraced Islam in different parts of Sindh during the past year, especially among lower-caste Hindus, who mainly reside in southern deserted parts of the province.

Islamic charities have also been carrying out various relief and development projects in Thar Desert, where almost 50 percent of the population is Hindus.

Zam-Zam water project carried out by Al-Khidmat Foundation, under which 400 wells have been dug in different parts of Thar, has made a major difference in the lives of Hindus, who otherwise had to travel miles to fetch potable water.

Similarly, scores of Christians have reverted to Islam in different parts of Punjab, the country’s most populous and richest province, during last year.

Christians and Hindus make up 3 and 2 percent of the total 180 million population of the south Asian Muslim country.

Special significance

For Abdullah, who is going to observe his first Ramadan, the holy fasting month has special significance in his life.

“It was the holy month of Ramadan that changed my life by bringing me closer to Islam,” he told OnIslam.net.

“It was Ramadan that propelled me to think about Islam for the first time in my life.

“I kept thinking about the spirit that enables Muslims to remain without food, water, and other luxuries  of life during fasting, even during times when no one is there to see (monitor) them?

“Though I could not figure out this all right away, however it’s never too late. I am thankful to Allah who has led me to the right path,” a humble Abdullah says.

Mohammad Ibrahim (George Masih), a former Christian, who embraced Islam few months ago, gives credit to Ramadan for leading him to revert.

“I had been thinking of spirit behind fasting for a long time, however, I could not understand the logic behind that, though partial fasting was not new to me being a Christian,” Ibrahim told OnIslam.net.

“To understand that, I read more literature about Ramadan, both in Urdu and English,” Ibrahim, a teacher by profession, said.

“As much as I kept reading about Ramadan, I started understanding the rationality of Islam.”

That is why, Ibrahim said, the holy month of Ramadan has special significance to me.

“I am all set to observe fasting for the first time,” said Ibrahim, who is little worried about extremely hot weather and long days.

“I am little worried about that, but I am sure that by the grace of Allah, I will cope with that.”—www.shafaqna.com/english

SHAFAQNA (Shia News Association) — Gearing up for the holy fasting month, Dubai is preparing a rich program to mark Ramadan, including Islamic lectures and mass Iftar meals for thousands of workers to enhance unity and Islamic fraternity among Muslims.

“As was the case with the past 10 sessions, the forum this year is expected to make an astounding success, particularly for those who are eager to know about the true teachings of Islam from renowned scholars worldwide,” Hamad bin Magran, General Administrator of the 11th Ramadan Forum, told a press conference on Sunday, July 8 cited by The Gulf Times.

Themed “Nasaem Al Rahma” or Breezes of Mercy, the 11th Ramadan Forum, organized by the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), will run from July 24 to August 4.

Ramadan Starts July 20 Astronomically

Ramadan Nights in Dubai

Bin Mejren said the 12-day program will host scholars and preachers from around the Arab and Muslim worlds.

“A number of lectures and competitions will be held among workers while thousands of brochures, pamphlets, CDs and cassettes on the merciful teachings of Islam,” said Bin Magran.

A number of lectures will be delivered and competitions held among workers while thousands of brochures, pamphlets, CDs and cassettes on the merciful teachings of Islam will be distributed, he added.

The program will start with a lecture titled, “Lessons from prophets’ biographies’, by Sheikh Mohammed Al Urifi on July 24.

Other lectures will host Sheikh Anas bin Misfir who will give a lecture titled “Breezes of Mercy”, whereas Sheikh Omar Abdul Kafi will deliver a lecture on repentance and eagerness to God’s mercy on July 26.

Sheikh Abdullah Al Musleh will talk about the miraculous facts in the Noble Qur’an on July 27 whereas Sheikh Abdullah Al Kamali will give a lecture titled, ‘Thanks to God’, the following day.

Lectures will also be given by Sheikh Ibrahim Al Duwaish about stories of some of the prominent women mentioned in the Noble Qur’an. Sheikh Yasser Al Dusari will give a lecture on the relationship between Holy Quran and life on July 30.

The organizing committee will hold some lectures in non-Arabic languages to foreign workers.

The forum is annually held under the patronage of Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation.

Goodness Caravan

The Ramadan program will also include the Goodness Caravan, which roams around Dubai to distribute thousands of books, pamphlets, and cassettes on Islam.

“The same caravan will also distribute thousands of briefcases comprised of religious issues, which will visit schools, universities, hospitals and government departments, as well as private institutions and civil bodies in Dubai,” explained Bin Magran.

The ‘Nation Preacher’ Caravan will also feature sermons to students on relevant issues derived from the daily life and social backgrounds.

This year’s programs will also feature young students singing Islamic songs and reciting poetry.

“The move is aimed to create a new generation of students and train them to effectively participate in discussing important issues,” he said.

Ramadan is the holiest month in Islamic calendar.

According to astronomical calculations, the holy fasting month of Ramadan will start on Friday, July 20.

In Ramadan, adult Muslims, save the sick and those traveling, abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.

Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to be closer to Allah through prayers, self-restraint and good deeds.

It is customary for Muslims to spend part of the days during Ramadan studying the Noble Qur'an.

Many men perform i`tikaf (spiritual retreat), spending the last 10 days of the month exclusively in the mosque.— www.shafaqna.com/english/