Obama names U.S. envoy to Islamic Conference

President Obama announced Saturday the appointment of Rashad Hussain, a White House lawyer, to be his special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Obama made the announcement in a video conference to the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. In his message, Obama called Hussain "an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff," who would strengthen his policy of outreach to the world's Muslims.

Obama has made repairing U.S. relations with the Islamic world an important element of his foreign policy, an effort highlighted by his call for a "new beginning" in a speech in Cairo last June.

In the statement Saturday, Obama said Hussain has "played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo," and would continue to do so in his new position. Obama noted that Hussain is a Hafiz of the Koran, someone who has memorized the holy Islamic text.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference comprises 57 nations with a goal of promoting Muslim unity.

As a deputy associate counsel to Obama, Hussain has worked on national security, new media, and science and technology issues, according to a White House statement. He previously worked as a trial attorney for the Justice Department and as a legislative assistant on the House Judiciary Committee.

Hussain attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned his law degree from Yale Law School. He holds master's degrees in public administration and Arabic and Islamic studies from Harvard University.

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Gaza and Lebanon: Beware the Iron Wall, the Coming War

The Israeli military may be much less effective in winning wars than it was in the past, thanks to the stiffness of Arab resistance. But its military strategists are as shrewd and unpredictable as ever. The recent rhetoric that has escalated from Israel suggests that a future war in Lebanon will most likely target Syria as well. While this doesn't necessarily mean that Israel actually intends on targeting either of these countries in the near future, it is certainly the type or language that often precedes Israeli military maneuvers.

Deciphering the available clues regarding the nature of Israel's immediate military objectives is not always easy, but it is possible. One indicator that could serve as a foundation for any serious prediction of Israel's actions is Israel's historical tendency to seek a perpetual state of war. Peace, real peace, has never been a long-term policy.

"Unlike many others, I consider that peace is not a goal in itself but only a means to guarantee our existence," claimed Yossi Peled, a former army general and current Cabinet Minister in Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government.

Israeli official policy - military or otherwise - is governed by the same Zionist diktats that long preceded the establishment of the state of Israel. If anything has changed since early Zionists outlined their vision, it was the interpretation of those directives. The substance has remained intact.

For example, Zionist visionary, Vladimir Jabotinsky stated in 1923 that Zionist "colonization can...continue and develop only under the protection of a force independent of the local population - an iron wall which the native population cannot break through." He was not then referring to an actual wall. While his vision took on various manifestations throughout the years, in 2002 it was translated into a real wall aimed at prejudicing any just solution with the Palestinians. Now, most unfortunately, Egypt has also started building its own steel wall along its border with the war-devastated and impoverished Gaza Strip.

One thing we all know by now is that Israel is a highly militarized country. Its definition of 'existence' can only be ensured by its uncontested military dominance at all fronts, thus the devastating link between Palestine and Lebanon. This link makes any analysis of Israel's military intents in Gaza, that excludes Lebanon - and in fact, Syria - seriously lacking.

Consider, for example, the unprecedented Israeli crackdown on the Second Palestinian Uprising which started in September 2000. How is that linked to Lebanon? Israel had been freshly defeated by the Lebanese resistance, led by Hizbullah, and was forced to end its occupation of most of South Lebanon in May 2000. Israel wanted to send an unmistakable message to Palestinians that this defeat was in fact not a defeat at all, and that any attempt at duplicating the Lebanese resistance model in Palestine would be ruthlessly suppressed. Israel's exaggeration in the use of its highly sophisticated military to stifle a largely popular revolution was extremely costly to Palestinians in terms of human toll.

Israel's 34-day war on Lebanon in July 2006 was an Israeli attempt at destroying Arab resistance, and restoring its metaphorical iron wall. It backfired, resulting in a real - not figurative - Israeli defeat. Israel, then, did what it does best. It used its superior air force, destroyed much of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure and killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The resistance, with humble means, killed more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers during combat.

Not only did Hizbullah had penetrated the Israeli iron wall, it had also filled it with holes. It challenged, like never before, the Israeli army's notion of invincibility and illusion of security. Something went horribly wrong in Lebanon.

Since then, the Israeli army, intelligence, propagandists and politicians have been in constant preparation for another showdown. But before such pending battle, the nation needed to renew its faith in its army and government intelligence; thus the war in Gaza late December 2008.

As appalling as it was for Israeli families to gather en masse near the Israeli Gaza border, and watch giddily as Gaza and Gazans were blown to smithereens, the act was most rational. The victims of the war may have been Palestinians in Gaza, but the target audience was Israelis. The brutal and largely one-sided war united Israelis, including their self-proclaimed leftist parties in one rare moment of solidarity. Here was proof that the IDF still had enough strength to report military achievements.


Of course, Israel's military strategists knew well that their war crimes in Gaza were a clumsy attempt at regaining national confidence. The tightly lipped politicians and army generals wanted to give the impression that all was working according to plan. But the total media blackout, and the orchestrated footage of Israeli soldiers flashing military signs and waving flags on their way back to Israel were clear indications of an attempt to improve a problematic image.

Thus Yossi Peled's calculated comments on January 23: "In my estimation, understanding and knowledge it is almost clear to me that it is a matter of time before there is a military clash in the north." Further, he claimed that "We are heading toward a new confrontation, but I don't know when it will happen, just as we did not know when the second Lebanon war would erupt."

Peled is of course right. There will be a new confrontation. New strategies will be employed. Israel will raise the stakes, and will try to draw Syria in, and push for a regional war. A Lebanon that defines itself based on the terms of resistance - following the failure to politically co-opt Hizbullah - is utterly unacceptable from the Israeli viewpoint. That said, Peled might be creating a measured distraction from efforts aimed at igniting yet another war - against the besieged resistance in Gaza, or something entirely different. (Hamas' recent announcement that its senior military leader Mahmoud al- Mabhouh was killed late January in Dubai at the hands of Israeli intelligence is also an indication of the involved efforts of Israel that goes much further than specific boundaries.)

Will it be Gaza or Lebanon first? Israel is sending mixed messages, and deliberately so. Hamas, Hizbullah and their supporters understand well the Israeli tactic and must be preparing for the various possibilities. They know Israel cannot live without its iron walls, and are determined to prevent any more from being built at their expense.

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Swiss Larang Menara Masjid Baru

Proposal mengenai larangan pembangunan menara masjid di Swiss disetujui oleh mayoritas penduduk Swiss melalui referendum, Minggu 29 November 2009.

Hasil referendum ini, 57,5 persen pemungut suara menyetujui larangan tersebut. Hanya empat provinsi dari 26 provinsi yang menolak proposal tersebut.

Seperti dikutip dari laman stasiun televisi BBC, usulan larangan pembangunan menara masjid itu diusung oleh Partai Rakyat Swiss (SVP), partai terbesar di parlemen, dengan alasan menara masjid adalah tanda Islamisasi. Pemerintah Swiss menentang larangan tersebut karena khawatir citra Swiss akan rusak, terutama di dunia muslim.

Namun, sekretaris jenderal SVP, Martin Baltisser, mengatakan bahwa pemungutan suara yang digelar merupakan pengambilan suara untuk menentang pembangunan menara yang merupakan simpol kekuatan Islam. Koresponden BBC di Bern mengatakan, hasil mengejutkan itu merupakan berita buruk bagi pemerintah Swiss yang takut akan terjadi huru-hara di antara komunitas muslim.

Pemberi dukungan tidak mempedulikan saran pemerintah karena bila mereka mendukung pemerintah dengan mengizinkan pembangunan menara, maka jumlah imigran, dan seiring dengan itu jumlah pemeluk Islam akan meningkat.

Dalam sebuah pernyataan, pemerintah Swiss menerima keputusan tersebut. “Dewan Federal (pemerintah) menghormati keputusan ini. Konsekuensinya, pembangunan menara-menara baru di Swiss tidak lagi diizinkan.” Menteri Kehakiman Swiss, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, akan meyakinkan umat muslim di Swiss bahwa keputusan itu bukanlah sebuah penolakan atas komunitas muslim, agama, ataupun budaya mereka.

Sekitar 400.000 warga muslim tinggal di Swiss. Sejauh ini Swiss hanya memiliki empat menara masjid. Setelah Kristen, Islam adalah agama yang paling menyebar di Swiss tetapi keberadaannya relatif tersembunyi. Ada ruang-ruang beribadah tidak resmi bagi umat muslim di sana. Pengajuan aplikasi untuk mendirikan menara-menara baru hampir selalu ditolak.

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Islamic Business Wins Academic Following

At semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Istanbul last month, talk was largely dominated, inevitably, by the economic crisis and its aftermath. But suitably enough, given the location, another topic also came to the fore: the role of Islamic finance, a fast-developing sector of the global banking industry that has remained remarkably resilient through the slowdown.

With the value of assets in Islamic banks now close to $1 trillion and the industry growing at an estimated annual rate of 15 to 20 percent, business students are increasingly eager to cash in. Universities are increasingly offering new postgraduate programs in Islamic finance to help them do it.

Islamic financial products comply with Koranic prohibitions against charging interest and investing in morally dubious industries, such as alcohol and pornography, and lending is based on profit-sharing. At a time when Western banking and financial models have been thoroughly discredited, Islamic finance is enjoying an enviable reputation as a more reliable way to invest. HSBC in the United Kingdom is one of many Western institutions that now offer, among other products, Shariah-compliant mortgages and bank accounts.

“There is a substantial shortage of people familiar with Islamic financial principals in Western banks,” said Philip Molyneux, head of the business school at Bangor University in Wales, which introduced M.A. and M.S. programs in Islamic banking and finance last year. “And they’re all realizing that the Muslim population is a client base that it would be in their interest to cater to.”

The British government has said it is committed to turning London into a robust Islamic financial center and a paper published by the Treasury in December called for the pool of people with the necessary training to be expanded “to keep up with the rapid growth of the market.” British business schools have moved fast to meet the challenge.

Bangor University introduced its one-year degree courses in Islamic finance after receiving a flood of inquiry from prospective students. Participants finish the programs by submitting a dissertation on a topic related to Islamic banking — for instance the market in Islamic bonds, known as sukuk. Enrollment has risen for this academic year to 29 students from just over half that number last year. Ten of this year’s students are employees of the Faisal Islamic Bank in Sudan, sent to Bangor to gain academic accreditation and improve their English.

According to Mr. Molyneux, about a third of this year’s M.A and M.S. classes has a background in Koranic study and is interested in becoming Shariah scholars. “Every bank, insurance company and investment firm that offers Islamic products has to have a Shariah board that screens their business and decides whether it’s compliant with Islamic principles or not,” he said. “Finding people who can interpret the religious tracts and understand the financial technicalities isn’t easy.”

Next academic year, responding to high demand, the school intends to introduce an M.B.A. in Islamic finance. “I suspect that there will be quite a bit of migration from the M.A. and M.S. to the more management-oriented M.B.A.,” Mr. Molyneux said. “The commercial sector is much more attracted to the M.B.A. than it is to the other degrees, which it often views — rightly or wrongly — as being too academic.”

Thom Polson, a 28-year-old Seattle native, enrolled in the M.A. program at Bangor after completing a postgraduate degree at the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance in London. His interest in the sector began when, traveling extensively through the Middle East, he could see that “Islamic banking was growing almost as fast as the skyscrapers.”

“I saw for the first time economic success working hand in hand with law and religion,” Mr. Polson said. “And it fit with the way I think about community.” Upon graduation, he plans to move to Switzerland and work in Islamic wealth management. His aim is to contribute to the conversion of “the huge amount of capital that is already there from the Muslim world to Shariah-compliant accounts,” he said.

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Sime Darby Signs Islamic Programmes To Raise Funds

Sime Darby Bhd has successfully signed Islamic programmes on Wednesday, where the proceeds from the Islamic Programmes will be use to the group acquisitions and capital expenditure, working capital requirements as well as to refinance certain debt obligations.

In a statement, lead arranger, Maybank Investment Bank Bhd, said it involved Islamic Medium-Term Note (IMTN) Programme of RM4.5 billion and Islamic Commercial Paper (ICP)/Islamic Medium Term Note Programme of RM500 million with a Combined Master Limit of RM4.500 billion.

The ICP/IMTN Programmes are collectively known as the Islamic Programmes.

Maybank president and chief executive officer, Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar, said the financial group was proud to be working on this transaction to assist Sime Darby in meeting its medium- to long-term funding requirements.

He said the strength of the AAA-rated Islamic Programmes reflected Sime Darby's position as a leading conglomerate and the world's largest listed oil palm plantation group.

"We believe that the Islamic Programmes will inject into the Malaysian capital market with further depth and promote it in line with the government's initiative to propel Malaysia as a renowned global Islamic hub through the Malaysian International Islamic Financial Centre," he said.

He said investors would find the notes issued under the Islamic Programmes as a premier investment and a valuable contribution to their bond portfolio and investment strategy.

The Islamic Programmes are structured based on the widely-accepted Islamic finance principle of Musyarakah, which is popular with local and international capital market players.

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Obama could change dynamics in the Arab world

Despising America has long been a Middle East pastime, but then the country that brought war to Iraq and orange-suited prisoners to Guantanamo Bay elected a Facebook-friendly president who speaks in poems.

What's a mullah to do?

With the speed of a Twitter missive, the cultural game has shifted. Barack Obama's rise to the White House comes when the Arabs are intensely suspicious of U.S. intentions, and when Islam, through satellite TV and the Internet, is inundated with Western culture.

Eight years of President Bush gave conservative Muslims a buttress against America. But Obama, who plays as well in Hollywood as he does in the villages of Kenya, is changing Washington's image from a cowboy with snarling sound bites to a conciliator with star appeal.

The Middle East probably won't put aside its mistrust of Washington over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iraq and regional flash points, including Iran's nuclear program. The early elation in the Arab media over Obama's victory was later balanced with the belief that the president-elect is encumbered by entrenched U.S. policies, and that what looms before the world is a new face, one with international sensibilities, yet ultimately one that will act in American interests.


But Obama's is a multicultural face that narrows degrees of separation. He is the Christian son of a Muslim father; he seems more a citizen of the world than an Illinois senator. To many in the Middle East, he is that rare thing: a minority who, with breathtaking speed and without a military coup, has risen to political prominence. This strikes deeply in a part of the world where repression carries a twofold meaning: Western power and military dominance, and Arab regimes that silence dissent.

"His resonant, melodic voice is heard as the voice of the voiceless," Gamal Nkrumah, whose father, Kwame, led Ghana to independence from British rule in 1957, wrote in the Egyptian weekly Al Ahram. "Obama's genius is that he appeals to the well-heeled liberals in Western nations as much as the penniless peasants of impoverished nations, the teeming millions eking out a meager existence."

The president-elect presents new dangers to the established order. He is charismatic and cyber-savvy; he bridges hip-hop and Mozart; his middle name is Hussein. He built a campaign around a well-choreographed electronic populism that generated millions of dollars in Internet donations.

This strategy speaks to religious and political reformers in the Middle East, who in recent years have turned to blogs and Facebook groups to organize government protests and debate Islamic tenets.

U.S. allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco jail dissident bloggers and online commentators. These governments, which are crucial to regional stability and the stemming of terrorism, are frequently criticized by democracy advocates and human rights groups. The Internet, YouTube and message boards, which Obama navigated to win the support of steelworkers, college students and investment bankers, are viewed by leaders in this region as dangerous tools of revolt for the young.

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