The 7-day 30th annual Qur’an competition is set to start in Makkah from Sept. 13. The competition, started 30 years ago, aims to teach the participants from around the world how best to read the Holy Book and comprehend its meanings and the laws laid down by the Almighty.

The participants at the competition, organized by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, will also get a chance to visit several areas around the holy city of Makkah including the factory that produces the Kiswa (the Ka’ba cover), a museum of the Two Holy Mosques and Makkah Club for Culture and Art, said Ahmad Al-Nwawi, head of the ministry’s public relations department in Makkah.

A new short film titled ‘Hdaya’ (or Guidance) has been out to counter ‘Fitna’ (or affliction) film posted by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders in which he deliberately misrepresented Islam and the Quran.

The Saudi film opens to explain the veracity of Islam. It displays the story of a Dutch expert who comes to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to study geology. He has an appointment with a Saudi young man who is experienced in the same discipline. But he fears that the Saudi man will burst in anger in reaction to a misinformed film produced by a Dutch national.

The young Saudi man comes to the meeting and starts a long dialogue between the East and the West with the Dutch.  In part, the film is a documentary of wars. “We do not fear history because we have not fought bloody wars as those made by Europe”, the young Saudi man said in the film.

The documentary is being now filmed in Riyadh and will run for ten minutes. It reviews the accomplishments of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its modernization endeavors. Scriptwriter Fawzi Al-Rawi said “This non-profit film which we are producing carries a great message and showcases the nobility of Islam. It makes its audience see how Muslims deal with others and how truly different they are from followers of other faiths”, he said.

You know hijab styles have come to be recognized as legitimate fashion statements, when a mainstream newspaper like The Guardian does a fashion feature on ‘autumn’s key hijab look.’
Over the past few years, hijab styles and ‘modest’ fashion have blossomed into a full-grown preoccupation with Muslim women who wear the headscarf (hijab), with hijab-wearing public figures, designers, blogs, YouTube and Facebook groups all pitching in to stoke the hype.

Jana Kossaibati, a medical student from the UK, whose blog HijabStyle, (hijabstyle.blogspot.com) is tagged as the ‘UK’s first style guide for Muslim women’, says “Muslim girls are very conscious of the way they dress.

…Mainstream retailers have picked up on the huge market potential and are also starting to market their clothing to Muslim women. A few years ago Nordstrom put on a “full coverage” fashion seminar at a Washington, D.C.-area upscale suburban mall, promising to interpret “Hot Trends for Conservative and Veiled Women,” noted a Slate magazine article on the trend.

Although older Muslim women often choose a style of headscarf that reflects their cultural heritage, and more conservative Muslims call the “trendy hijab” an oxymoron, there’s no stopping young women from all over the Muslim world who have discovered that hijabs can be fashionable and fun.

Click the Saudi Gazette link at the top to read the full article

A Briton who sparked a bomb alert on an Emirates flight from Manchester to Dubai in July while he was drunk was sentenced to four months in prison in the Gulf emirate on Wednesday.

Mark Winterbottom, 37, will be deported after serving his sentence and has also been fined 1,000 dirhams ($272), presiding judge Fahmi Munir Fahmi said.

Winterbottom, who said he had been “joking” when he triggered the bomb alert, appeared briefly in the dock to hear the sentence in a Dubai court.

During a hearing on September 10, Winterbottom, who causedpanic by claiming he had a bomb that would explode in seven minutes, pleaded not guilty to attacking a civilian airliner but admitted he had been drinking.

…Dubai’s Emirates airline said Winterbottom sparked the bomb alert as its flight from England landed in Dubai. An official said he had an argument with a crew member and then claimed a bomb was on the aircraft, which was later searched and no explosives were found.

The public prosecution charged him with assaulting the aircraft and passengers as well as drunkenness.

The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has made an urgent humanitarian appeal in favor of the people of eastern Africa following persistent rain failures. In a press statement, Prof. Ihsanoglu said “it has been brought to my knowledge that over 14 million people have been suffering from various forms of malnutrition in several Eastern African countries out of which three are Member States of OIC, namely Somalia, Uganda and Djibouti.”

According to UN sources, half of the population of Somalia is faced with acute food shortages due to prolonged instability, rising high food prices world-wide, coupled with long-term prevailing drought. Likewise, Uganda and Djibouti are also facing food deficits due to persistent rain failures which have rendered nearly two million people dependent on international aid in the arid Karamoja.

At least 16 people, including civilians, were killed in a suspected car bomb explosion outside the US Embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Wednesday

According to media reports, citing Yemeni officials, the victims included six security guards, six attackers and four civilians.

Two vehicles are reported to have been involved in the embassy attack – one was said to have contained a suicide bomber and the second was carrying armed men.

Yemeni officials said the first car contained people in police uniforms who exchanged fire with Yemeni security forces.

The second car reportedly exploded after it passed an outermost gate to the heavily fortified embassy but before it reached a second protective barrier, the officials said.

US Embassy spokesman Ryan Gliha confirmed security guards and civilians were among the dead but said no embassy staff were killed.

The mass mailing of a controversial DVD “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” has sparked anger among many in South Florida.

The hour-long video began turning up in mailboxes last week as a direct mailing, and also as an advertising insert in dozens of newspapers, including The Miami Herald and the South-Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The DVD is promoted by Clarion Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to “educating the public about national security threats.”

South Florida Muslims say it maligns their faith and fuels hysteria ahead of the fast-approaching US presidential vote.

…The Huffington Post reported that the Clarion Fund plans to reach 28 million households with the video in all, targeting viewers in potentially critical battleground states such as Florida, Ohio and Colorado.

…Ali also said he worried viewers might attribute legitimacy to the film because it was packaged with their city newspaper. He said his phone had been ringing off the hook with complaints, often from newspaper readers who planned to cancel their subscriptions.

An article at the DAVD group’s site was said to have all but endorsed John McCain this past week before being pulled down.

…The DVD claims to show the “parallels between the Nazi movement of World War II, the radicals of today, and the Western world’s response to both threats.”

Ironically, critics noted the DVD actually incites sentiments against Muslims similar to the sentiments the Nazis had incited against the Jews.

The film’s re-distribution comes at a time of rising Islamophobia.

About 500 Swift workers, all Muslim and mostly of Somali background, walked off the job Monday afternoon at the plant in Grand Island, Nebraska. The workers said they have been unable to pray during their holiest month, Ramadan, which occurs in September this year.

A Colorado-based spokeswoman for JBS Swift says workers who walked off the job at a Nebraska packing plant in a dispute over Muslim prayer time have not been fired.

Swift says 101 workers at its Greeley plant were fired last week for walking out before their shifts ended Sept. 5.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a landmark co-financing agreement which will allow them to work together on projects in common member countries (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Maldives, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). The agreement calls on both organizations to provide up to $2 billion equivalent each over the next three years to finance projects in their common member countries. The agreement, the first of its kind, is based on a three-year business plan that includes a common vision, strategic framework, and best practice ideas in development financing, IDB said in a statement yesterday.

The co-financing will mainly target transactions in the infrastructure (including irrigation), utilities, and urban sectors. However, it may also cover education, health and other sectors in selected countries. “This agreement is unique, timely and in line with the Accra High Level Forum and other international declarations on development effectiveness and harmonization”, said Vice President Cisse of the Islamic Development Bank.

“In addition, this agreement provides a new platform form which both institutions will attempt to raise third party funds for investments in the common member countries. This is a breakthrough in collaboration between international financial institutions”, said Juan Miranda, director general of the Central and West Asia Department of the Asian Development Bank.

…Separately, another MoU was signed between the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) and the Islamic Development Bank Group on Sunday formulating a comprehensive agreement of cooperation between the partners in promoting economic and social development of their common countries…TIKA, acting on behalf of the government of the Republic of Turkey, is dedicated to contributing towards sustainable social and economic development in partner countries through technical cooperation activities and development projects. Given the similar realm of visions of both institutions, the partnership between IDB and TIKA aims to better facilitate development in their member countries.

South Korea has signed an initial deal to lease 61,750 acres of Indonesian coastal waters to grow seaweed for bioethanol fuel, it was announced today. The letter of intent was signed between the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and its Indonesian counterpart.

Yonhap news agency said the seaweed would be used to make commercial pulp products and bioethanol, a more environmentally friendly fuel used in internal-combustion engines either in pure form or as an additive.