Hookah smoking: A dangerous trend:  Our local community, particularly our vulnerable children, some as young as 8 years old, are falling prey to this trend of hookah smoking sweeping the US and Europe (an age-old practice imported from the Middle East). The saddest and frighteningly dangerous practice of local hujaj , returning from Makkah, with  "a gift for the children", a hookah pipe, needs to be discouraged and stopped. There is nothing religious  or good about this practice and healthcare givers need the support of parents, teachers and the ulema and to condemn and eradicate this developing potential scourge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMASA COMMEMORATE  60 YEARS OF THE NAKBA

 

The members of the Islamic Medical Association of South Africa and our families, indeed all freedom-loving people in the world, share with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Palestine and those in exile, the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the Catastrophe. 

We share your pain and anguish, your humiliation and oppression at the hands of the ruthless occupiers of your land. We and our children bear testimony with revulsion to the inhuman acts of terror perpetrated by the Zionists and their allies in the US and Europe, the massacre  of your noble leaders, among other, Shaykh Yasin and Dr Al-Rantisi, and the acquiescence of the Arab states  in the Middle East to your call for help.

We hail the selfless efforts of your resistance and the courage of of the community. The signs of the fall of the oppressor are manifest: your superior power lies in your faith and forbearance: they can control and regiment your bodies, but not your souls.  May Allah relieve the pain and suffering and help us overcome the enemy! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRO-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ZIONIST  ACADEMIC  DEMONISES  MUSLIM COMMUNITY

 

Hussein Solomon, currently Director of the Centre for International Political Studies at the Pretoria University,  for reasons best known to himself and his sponsors in Israel and beyond, appears determined to vilify the local South African Muslim community and denigrate our schools, mosques and cultural institutions as training centres for promoting terrorism. Needless to say his baseless research is causing much pain and consternation in the ummah. In expressing our condemnation of his actions, we reproduce an open letter  written by Suraya Dadoo, researcher of the Media Review Network:

 

Dear Professor Solomon,

Re: Presentation made at Counter-Terrorism Conference, 10 September 2007

On 10 September 2007, you made a presentation, in your capacity as Director of the Centre for International Political Studies, at the 7th International Conference of the International Institute for Counter Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, where you discussed “radical” Islam in South Africa. It was not surprising that you chose to accept Rueven Paz’s invitation, and joined other well-known Islamophobes such as Steven Emerson, Daniel Pipes, and Binyamin Netanyahu.

 

While your participation in this conference is objectionable, your statement that you “could have done the same presentation on something called mainstream Islam in South Africa” is shocking.  Your assertion that “mainstream Islam = Radical Islam” demonises the entire Muslim community of South Africa.

 

The rest of your presentation consisted of sweeping generalisations about various areas of Muslim life, without reference to any research or findings. That your hosts allowed these baseless allegations to masquerade as an academic presentation, reveals how desperately they wanted to portray Muslims as the enemy.  Indeed, the content of your presentation is one of the most vicious forms of Islamophobia I have ever encountered.

 

During your presentation, you claimed, amongst other things, that: 

• Muslim organizations, mosques and the Muslim media were psychologically preparing local Muslims for terrorism;

• military training is occurring at various South African Muslim high schools;

• Muslims were a potential threat to the 2010 World Cup;

• South African madressahs (religious schools) were a breeding ground for terrorism.

• The local Muslim community was “volatile” and would provide safe-houses and money to potential terrorists.

    Muslims in South Africa would like to know how you reached these conclusions. Nowhere in your presentation did you provide a shred of evidence to

    substantiate your claims.

 

Your attack was also not limited to local Muslims. You even claimed that the movement of Pakistani and Algerian clerics into South Africa was problematic, and that Lebanese communities in South Africa had links with Hizbollah. Again, you seemed to have ignored the fundamental rule of academia: always provide references and sources! 

 

You used the examples of Dr. Firoz Ganchi, Zubair Ismail, and the Dockrats as supposed proof that South Africans were involved in terror activities. Like most of the inmates at Guantanamo Bay and other secret prisons around the world, not one of these men were ever charged with any crime, despite being detained for lengthy periods of time.  How you can use them as a concrete example of Muslim participation in terror is mind-boggling!

 

Why are there no names mentioned in the supposed plot to blow up the final of the African Nations Cup in Cairo?

Who is the “South African connection” that you mention?  Were they ever charged or convicted?

Also, who is this “gentleman” caught trying to smuggle $130 000 across the border to his contact?

I have never read or heard anything about this before. Surely, the arrest of such an important terror facilitator would have made front-page news?

 

Your attack on Islamic educational structures is appalling. The Muslim community is proud of the strides that it has made in terms of the establishment of madressahs and Islamic schools. However, your insinuation that foreign-trained ulema are influencing Muslim children places unwarranted attention and suspicion on madressahs.

What was almost laughable was that immediately after making this claim, you said: “to the best of my knowledge, I do not know if we actually have a database on this” !

You also claim that it is a “fact” that military training is occurring at various Muslim high schools. I am certain that organizations like the Association of Muslim Schools, as well as educators, members of school governing bodies and others involved in Muslim school structures in South Africa, would be eager to know which schools are involved. I hope that you will provide the evidence to prove this “fact”.

 

Why are you so worried about the World Cup being hosted in South Africa? What evidence is there that shows that hosting this event would be a “problem”, as you put it?

It would also be both in the community and the country’s best interests if you exposed which Muslim organizations, mosques and madressahs and, Muslim media, were “psychologically preparing Muslims for terrorism”, and creating a “siege mentality”.

Surely, you understand that these irresponsible claims sustain the misconception that Islam and Muslims are a threat to domestic and world peace? Your reckless statements will contribute to the unfair profiling of Islamic schools, charities and religious organizations in South Africa, and help create a climate where all Muslims are feared and despised.

As an academic you are obligated to provide indisputable evidence to support these serious allegations. If you cannot, then you must retract your statements and apologise. If, however, you persist in making these allegations, then we demand to know how you arrived at such ludicrous conclusions. I believe that this is a fair demand.  I look forward to receiving your response.

Yours sincerely,

Suraya Dadoo

Researcher, Media Review Nework

FURTHER READING: Solomon's truth-abuse reveals mushrooming industry in the camp of "Security Experts" by Iqbal Jassat

 

 

 

 

A fight for life in a power struggle

Paralysed in a car crash, Maher al Aseli relies on an electric respirator to breathe. So, every time the power supply is cut, it is up to his family to man the pump to keep him alive

By Donald Macintyre
Wednesday, 30 January 2008

It's 8pm on Monday evening and the Aseli family is in full emergency mode. The power has just gone down in their apartment – for the second time that day – blacking out the lights and the electric heater.

Abed al Aseli, father of the household, rises to light a lamp powered by cooking gas while one of his sons moves in a swift, practised way towards the bed of Maher, 12, in what is literally a life-or-death mission. Maher, paralysed from the neck down for the past six and a half years, normally relies on an electric respirator to breathe. When there is no power, the only alternative, however long the outage lasts, is to maintain his breathing manually with an Ambo hand pump.

Which is why, since last week's cut in fuel supplies to Gaza's power station, Mr al Aseli has recruited his five teenage nephews and nieces to help him, his wife, Alia, and their four other sons and two daughters, aged between eight and 21, working in rotation throughout the night, if necessary, with the nerve-racking, exhausting, task of keeping Maher alive.

Mr al Aseli says this is stressful for the whole family, and that his wife has to spend a disproportionate amount of time caring for Maher in what the family has made, in effect, into a home intensive care unit. "It is very difficult," he says. "If the power goes out at 1am, I have to shout and immediately wake up the kids."

The tragedy which first put Maher into this state had nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As Mrs al Aseli explains, when Maher was five and a half years old, he was driven by his father to a local supermarket. Mr Maher left his son in the car while he nipped into the store, but as he started to make his way back, he saw in horror that Maher had managed to get out of the car and was crossing the road towards him. Mr Maher shouted at him to stop where he was but Maher was run down close to the family car by a fast-moving taxi whose driver failed to see him. Maher's spinal cord was injured between the second and third vertebrae, leaving him quadriplegic.

 

Eating fish: good for heart, bad for environment?

 

 

Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:13PM

 By Ed Stoddard

 

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) - Doctors recommend a good dose of salmon or tuna in the diet because of its benefits to the heart. But is it good for the environment?

 

Surging demand for salmon in particular has been spurred in part by numerous studies touting the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, which are present in some kinds of fish.

 

A study published in June in the American Heart Association journal Circulation said a diet with liberal servings of fish, nuts and seeds rich in such nutrients can help lower a person's blood pressure. Other studies have shown benefits to eye and brain development and preventing heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and eye disorders.

 

Conservationists point out that while global fish stocks were getting hammered long before sushi became chic, health trends could add pressure to already vulnerable fisheries.

 

"Over-fishing has predated the interest in omega-3 and healthy eating. But now there are places where it is certainly going to accentuate it," said Jason Clay, vice president of markets at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

 

"The FAO (U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization) estimates that by 2030 average annual per capita global consumption of fish will increase by 1.5 kgs (3.4 pounds) and some of it will be driven by health-related demand," he said.

 

SUSTAINABLE VERSUS UNSUSTAINABLE

 

When it comes to omega-3 fatty acids, not all fish are equal. Fatty fish such as trout, salmon, mackerel and Alaska pollock are rich in this crucial group of nutrients.

 

Tuna are, too, but few wild tuna fisheries are regarded by conservationists as sustainable.

 

"It depends on your source ... Omega-3s are very high in wild salmon and the Alaskan salmon fishery is well-managed," said Phil Kline, an ocean campaigner with Greenpeace.

 

Alaska salmon are among the fisheries that have been certified as sustainable by the British-based Marine Stewardship Council. It uses stringent criteria for a fishery to get its seal of approval and the right to bear its eco-label.

 

It has not yet given its blessing to any tuna fishery but is assessing the sustainability of the U.S. Pacific coast albacore tuna industry.

 

Demand for salmon has certainly been soaring.

 

According to the U.S. National Fisheries Institute, American per capita consumption of salmon has risen from 0.87 pounds (0.39 kg) per year in 1992 to 2.026 pounds (0.92 kg) in 2006. The species also went from being America's sixth most popular fish to eat to its third over the same period of time.

 

In a well-managed situation, such demand can lead to conservation: it's in no one's interest to deplete something of value.

"In the long run, the more valuable wild salmon are the better they are likely to be protected," said Gunnar Knapp, a professor of economics at the University of Alaska's Institute of Social and Economic Research.

 

He said high demand and prices gave people an incentive to protect vital salmon habitat such as spawning grounds in rivers from other industries such as logging and mining.

 

"In Alaska, even if the price of salmon were to quadruple it would not lead to too many fish being caught because the limiting factor is not the price but how much the managers allow the fishermen to catch, and they make that assessment purely on biological grounds," Knapp told Reuters by phone from Anchorage.

 

But he said Russia's salmon fishery, for example, was not so well managed and could suffer overfishing as prices rise.

 

Much of the burgeoning demand for salmon is being met by the rapidly growing aquaculture industry, but experts say there are environmental concerns linked to that, too.

 

WWF's Clay said fish being caught for fishmeal to feed the aquaculture industry include species such as anchovies, which are rich in omega-3s but which have questions over their sustainability.

 

"One out of every three fish that is caught right now is used to make feed for other fish," he said.

 

Fish don't actually produce omega-3 fatty acids, they capture it from the food chain.

 

And there are plenty of substitutes out there such as walnuts, flaxseed and canola oil, which can provide the same omega-3-related benefits as fish.

 

In the past, children in many parts of the world were given cod liver oil as a health supplement. These days, they are more likely to take fish oil capsules made from other species.

 

For conservationists, the question is whether the latest health trend will result in salmon and other species going the same way as eastern Canada's cod fishery, once one of the world's richest which utterly collapsed last decade.

 

To DOWNLOAD this article click here

 

 

 

The Plight of the Physically Disabled

On Friday 30 March 2007 the General Assembly of the United Nations hosted some 80 member states at a special ceremony to sign the historic Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which had been adopted in December 2006.  This new human rights treaty marked the culmination of nearly 20 years of work on protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities and a major shift in the way the world treats its  650 million disabled people.

In her opening remarks, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa (Bahrain), President of the General Assembly, said all Member States had now committed to promoting and protecting the human rights, freedoms and dignity of all persons with disabilities. The Convention was an "opportunity to reaffirm the universal commitment to the rights and dignity of all people without discrimination" that could likewise provide the much-needed impetus for wider cultural changes in the world's perception of disabled people.

The Islamic Medical Association of South Africa welcomes the adoption of the convention that grants the physically oppressed  greater  hope that they would, at last,  be respected as active members of society rather than objects of charity. We urge that all member states sign the Protocol.  Please read the presentation remarks of Asha-Rose Migiro (UN Deputy Secretary-General) below: