The Canadian Red Cross is asking for funding to help flood victims in Pakistan.
It is estimated that six million people are in need of immediate assistance, including food, medicine, nutrition and clean drinking water, with a high epidemic risk.
Pregnant women, children and the elderly are most vulnerable.
Jan Brunschot, the Chatham branch’s community service co-ordinator for disaster management, said that some local donations have been coming in.
“We’re having trouble really pinpointing the extent of the damage, because we can’t get to some of the people,” she said on Friday.
On Monday, the Red Cross deployed a new field clinic. These clinics provide immediate curative, preventive and community health care.
Those wishing to donate may give online, call 1-800- 418-1111, or contact the local Canadian Red Cross office at 519-352-2510.
Cheques should be made payable to the Canadian Red Cross, earmarked “Pakistan Floods 2010″ and mailed to the Canadian Red Cross National Office, 170 Metcalfe Street, Suite 300, Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2P2.
Donate $5 by texting REDCROSS to 30333. A onetime donation of $5 will be added to your mobile phone bill. All charges are billed by and payable to your mobile service provider.
AN ISLAMIC group broke with tradition yesterday when a woman led afternoon prayers.
Author Raheel Raza, above, from Canada, became one of the first Muslim-born women to deliver a sermon in the UK — a move opposed by many Muslim clerics. She spoke at the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford’s prayers in Summertown Hall, Banbury Road.
Ms Raza appealed to Muslims to discuss “difficult” issues like homosexuality and immigration or “risk losing their children.”
Meco chairman Dr Taj Hargey said: “I think it went brilliantly.
“She is a very erudite and important person and I think this was a very historic event.”
Ms Raza has received death threats for trying to progress the role of women in Islam. She said: “If people open their minds, women leading prayers could become an achievable goal throughout the world.”
‘Sultans of science’ is an ongoing exhibition on inventions and discoveries by Muslim scientists being held in Canada, and aims to highlight the Muslim civilization’s contribution to science.
Held at the TELUS World of Science Center from May 19 to Sept. 7, the exhibition – brought to life through more than 40 magnificent interactive exhibits and giant functional replicas that uses cutting-edge technology to recreate the ingenuity of a golden age – is being enjoyed by visitors of all ages and backgrounds.
The exhibition celebrates the contribution of Arab and Muslim scholars to science and technology during the first Golden Age of the Islamic World (700-1700 CE) and the influence of their discoveries and inventions on contemporary society. It covers Arab and Muslim scientific endeavors in architecture, the arts, astronomy, engineering, exploration, flight, mathematics, medicine, instrument making, fine and utilitarian technology and optics researched and manufactured by MTE Studios.
MTE Studios is a specialized consultancy firm focused on themed architecture and interactive learning experiences. The firm claims that it “designs, prototypes and manufactures inspiring interactive exhibits for science centers, museums, shopping malls and corporate environments.”
“Sultans of Science’ is a unique exhibition, which not only provides visitors with insight and the rediscovery of missing history, but also sends a powerful and positive message to the world about the way we evaluate history, bridge cultural gaps and realize the need to embrace multi-cultural knowledge,” said Ludo Verheyen, the CEO of MTE Studio’s in an email message to Saudi Gazette.
This is the second time the inventions and discoveries of Muslim scientists has been put on display in Canada. “The exhibition drew record crowds at the Ontario Science Center, hence leading to increased interest in the exhibition by other Science Centers in North America. The exhibition is at the venue for 3 months and travels to another North American venue thereafter,” Verheyen explained.
The ‘traveling exhibition’ has already been to the Cape Town Science Center in South Africa, the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey and the Ontario Science Center. (more…)
TUESDAY was “Quit Facebook” day around the world but especially in Canada. The attempt to scuttle the famous — or infamous — social networking site was, after all, the initiative of two Canadians. Why they became so determined to do in Facebook is not entirely clear, at least to anyone who doesn’t actually use it or any of the other social networking sites — people like myself.
The phrase social networking, in fact, seems to be a bit of an oxymoron. The more addicted to sites like Facebook people become, often the less social they actually are. They may have a thousand Facebook friends but no one to talk to outside of the web. As one faithful Facebook aficionado lamented recently, she had been trying to find someone to talk to for 45 minutes without any luck. This must mean, she concluded, that she had no friends, and she may well have been right. Talking through the ether seems to me to be not much more friendly than passing gas in a crowded elevator.
But none of that seems to be the reason for Quit Facebook day. Its users don’t seem to mind that, for the most part, it is not much more than one huge, collective intellectual fart where people tell total strangers what they had for dinner and what colour underwear they were wearing while they ate.
There are serious issues surrounding Facebook and similar social networks. In Pakistan, Facebook was banned recently because a user urged others to post cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which to Muslims is blasphemy. A Pakistani court this week overturned that ban, saying the government could not limit freedom of speech and then went on to say that freedom did not include contradicting Islam. Facebook has had trouble in other countries as well — its only merit, as nearly as this low-tech Luddite can figure out — is that it is a conduit for free speech, no matter how fatuous most of that speech might be.
Rather, the reason that quitting Facebook was the talk of Twitter this week appears to be the company’s questionable collection of personal and private information from its users that it then sells to anyone who pays. Even that knowledge wasn’t enough to make Facebook users quit on Tuesday — the company won’t say how many did, but the estimate is about 40,000 pledges out 400 million users — and, with the threat of American legislation hanging over its head, Facebook has announced that it is tightening its privacy controls. That’s a step in the right direction, both for Facebook and for keeping government regulators out of the Internet, but it remains a jungle. Go ahead, talk your face off on the Internet if you want, but before you tell the world what you really did last night, give your life a reality check. No one has 1,000 friends.
A simmering clash between free speech and religious sensibilities in Pakistan burst from the streets onto the Internet on Thursday, as the government blocked the video-sharing site YouTube and other pages it deemed “sacrilegious” to the nation’s Muslim majority.
The move followed a similar shutdown Wednesday of the social-networking site Facebook, which had drawn the ire of Islamist activists over a page inviting people to post drawings of the prophet Muhammad. At least 450 sites, including Wikipedia, were also cut off by midday Thursday, and the government said more blockages could come as its newly created “crisis cell” scoured the Web for inflammatory content.
The bans, which sparked raucous debate, removed hugely popular outlets from what has become a vibrant and freewheeling media scene in recent years. In doing so, the prohibitions also underscored that debates over religion remain forbidden in a nation where Islamists exert power by regularly — and sometimes menacingly — condemning actions they view as blasphemous.
“If Facebook and other such tools continue to be used for blasphemy by the Western nations, then we will target their embassies,” said Faisal Javed, 21, a student at an Islamabad rally where demonstrators hoisted signs emblazoned with slogans such as “Death to Facebook.”
The site shutdowns came after a lawyers group successfully petitioned a Lahore court for an injunction against Facebook, arguing that a page titled “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day!” was offensive. The page has been promoted as an exercise in freedom of expression, and it was developed after creators of the Comedy Central program “South Park” complained that network executives had edited out their attempts to render Muhammad. According to some interpretations of Islam, any depiction of the prophet is considered blasphemous.
The government, which is secular, said its efforts were aimed at blocking “derogatory” references to Islam and reflected the “will of the people.”
“Such malicious and insulting attacks hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the world and cannot be accepted under the garb of freedom of expression,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that the United States respects Pakistani efforts to protect the public from offensive images and speech but that Pakistan must also respect freedom of expression online. (more…)
The New York Daily News reports that the financial district committee of the Community Board 1 in Manhattan has unanimously endorsed the erection of a 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center.
The Cordoba House is a $100 million project that is being proposed for the former Burlington Coat Factory building at Park Place and Broadway, a location that is two blocks away from where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. Committee Chairman Ro Sheffe shares: “I think it will be a wonderful asset to the community.”
The Cordoba Initiative was founded after the 9/11 attacks, and according to Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf, one of those who helped found the initiative, the Cordoba House aims to foster better relations between Muslims and the West. The project consists of a glass and steel building that will house a 500-seat performing arts venue, a swimming pool and a basketball court. Rauf gushed that there will be “nothing like it” and that it will be open to all New Yorkers.
Islam, however, is a religion that is unsurprisingly associated with the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, and despite the knowledge and the realization that it is incorrect to give a sweeping generalization of all Muslims, those who lost loved ones during the attacks are not too keen about seeing a mosque in the area.
Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, who lost his son Jim, a firefighter, during the attacks, said: “I realize it’s not all of them, but I don’t want to have to go down to a memorial where my son died on 9/11 and look at a mosque.”
The Cordoba Initiative hopes to break ground on the project by 9/11/2011, the 10th anniversary of the attacks. An estimated 1,000 to 2,000 Muslims are expected to pray in the Mosque on Fridays.
Lessard residents petitioning against a Muslim community centre and school proposed for a west Edmonton strip mall say they’re worried about parking and traffic problems — not religion.
“The issue was never, ever, about faith or about certain beliefs. Not at all. The issue is purely civic and neighbourly,” said Safwat Girgis, the author of the petition.
The community centre and school is proposed to go into the Lessard Mall. The small shopping centre is rundown and mostly vacant, with only three small businesses in the two-storey structure.
The Muslim Association of Canada bought the building in February. They are currently using the space as a community centre but want to apply for a zoning change so they can open a school.
“Our school is open to anybody who wants to come and register their children there,” said association spokesman, Ali Assaf.
But Girgis says residents are concerned about what will happen when parking at the community centre is added to the parking at a busy Ukrainian Orthodox church across the street.
“When we look at the projected number of users of that facility and we just see how many parking spaces and the kind of traffic that will be generated because of that, it’s just phenomenal,” Girgis said. He adds the community spoke out when the church tried to build a new building on its site.
But Assaf said parking shouldn’t be a problem and rejected suggestions that people would be coming from all over the city to drop their children off at the school.
“I believe the current infrastructure we have is more than capable of housing what we’re looking to do,” he said. “The city will determine whether the increases in traffic are going to cause any issues or not, and that’s why you go through the city to get permits and zoning.”
The association plans to submit a zoning application to the city soon, Assaf said.
A sign marking the future site of a mosque in the Barrhaven area was spray-painted with racist graffiti sometime overnight Thursday.
“I don’t know what to think. I guess some people don’t want us here,” said Wais Sidiqi, an administrative officer with the South Nepean Muslim Community.
Someone wrote “F— Muslims,” and “Ragheads Go” with what appears to be a poorly drawn swastika, which makes it read more like “Ragheads Golf.”
Sidiqi said the group paid $1.2 million for 1.3 hectares of land at 3020 Woodroffe Ave.
They’re trying to raise another $1.9 million for the second phase of their plan, which includes beginning construction in 2011.
Sidiqi said he called police to report the vandalism Friday morning but was told several people had already reported it.
The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the act Friday.
“Such acts are offensive, hurtful and intimidating to local citizens,” said executive director Ihsaan Gardee.
Gardee said there have been several similar cases reported to CAIR-CAN in the past four months.
“Mosques in Hamilton, Calgary, and Waterloo were vandalized and hate messages were spray-painted outside a mosque in Pickering earlier this week,” said Gardee.
The organization is calling on the Ottawa police to conduct a swift investigation and bring those responsible to justice.
Michael’s Jackson’s brother Jermaine Jackson reached out to the Muslim world in a long, controversial interview with the Dubai-based pan-Arab news channel Al-Arabiya aired Thursday night.
See below the jump for the videos of the interview, Jermaine Jackson’s first ever with an Arab news network.
During his nearly hourlong talk, he spoke out about his brother’s death, the conspiracies he believed were behind the singer’s downfall – and how he believes the King of Pop was on the verge of converting to Islam.
After spending time in the Gulf (Michael Jackson lived in Bahrain for a while in 2005), “Michael hired a team that was all Muslim,” Jackson told Al- Arabiya, dressed in a red Arab Keffeyeh scarf. “His behavior at the time also showed that he was very close to converting.” (more…)
Most spa owners are faced with the daunting task of finding a repairer to service their spa. Whether your spa is not working, not heating, has a leak, or generally, just needs a service, there are a few simple steps a spa owner can take before trying to find someone to visit. Try to identify […]
10 tips when selling your home… 1.Make an impression Prospective buyers make up their minds about your house even before they get out of the car. To ensure they have the right idea, clean up your yard, rake the leaves, shovel the snow, and sweep driveways and porches. Get out the rags and cleanser and […]
Up to a million people have fled their homes in the past two days, as floods, never seen on such a scale, continue to sweep south. A month after devastating floods first brought havoc to Pakistan, thousands of people were still fleeing surging water yesterday as the Indus broke its banks close to a historic […]
Flood survivors in Pakistan are not only facing the threat of serious illness with a lack of doctors and medication, but food shortages as well, as the water has also washed away crops and submerged hundreds of thousands of hectares of fertile farm land. The United Nations has so far received less than half of […]
Floodwaters broke through the levees protecting a southern Pakistani city again on Saturday, prompting more than 175,000 people to leave their homes in search of higher ground. The evacuation of roughly 70 per cent of Thatta’s population began overnight after the latest levee breach, caused by the Indus river overflowing its banks in Sindh province. […]
The Canadian Red Cross is asking for funding to help flood victims in Pakistan. It is estimated that six million people are in need of immediate assistance, including food, medicine, nutrition and clean drinking water, with a high epidemic risk. Pregnant women, children and the elderly are most vulnerable. Jan Brunschot, the Chatham branch’s community […]
