By: Sara Khan
Islamabad - Travelling alone as a Muslim Pakistani female hasn’t been all that easy in a post-9/11 world. In fact, being ”Muslim”, “Pakistani” and a “woman” simultaneously can be too many red flags attached to one identity.
While pursuing my education abroad I had many experiences dealing with airport security and immigration staff – particularly during my travels between Costa Rica, the United States and Pakistan. But I also learned through these experiences that sometimes a little act of kindness can go a long way in transforming our view of the ”other”, helping us to realise and appreciate the inherent good in people.In my mind I had put airport authorities everywhere in a box labelled “Ruthless-officials-securing-their-country”. And the box they might have had for me was, well, “She-must-be-up-to-something”. My interaction at the airport served as a microcosm of the larger Muslim-Western relationship, rife with stereotyped ideas and deeply held, hardly questioned beliefs about the other, further polarising the two groups.
My box guided my behaviour in front of airport security officials. This meant no extra talking, only brief answers, doing what they said and praying in my heart to come out of the question-and-answer session alive and kicking, and not detained somewhere in Guantanamo. Though this box helped me control my behaviour for the situation at hand, deep down I developed bitterness, fear, mistrust and anxiety of entering any country other than my own, especially a Western one.
It also compelled me to judge security officials I came across during my international travels in a negative way – as the “other”.
There was one particular occasion that at first bolstered this sentiment. I was waiting for a flight to Pakistan with a ten-hour transit in a UK airport. My hand luggage included nothing extraordinary except for a very unusual umbrella that a friend had given me during a visit to the Harvard Art Museum in Massachusetts. A professor at Harvard, this friend showed me the university and bought me an umbrella with an image of Harvard and the Charles River painted on it. That umbrella signified her kind friendship, love and belief in me. To me, it was not just an umbrella, but a connection to the world of knowledge that I admired and wanted to immerse myself in.
Afraid that I might lose it, I kept the umbrella as part of my carry-on. Though it passed through all the security checks in the United States, it was declared a “security risk” in the UK. Security officials asked me to throw it away before boarding the plane to Pakistan.
Bewildered by the seemingly random changes in security standards between airports, I tried in vain to argue. But I was not allowed to board the plane with the umbrella, and had to throw it away.
As I walked away, wiping my tears, I heard a security official yell out: “Excuse me, Ma’am! I have a solution!”
He took the umbrella out of the trash, a Swiss Army knife out of his pocket and started cutting the ribs and stretchers off the canopy of the umbrella. He meticulously removed the canopy off the shaft of umbrella, neatly folded it and handed it over to me with a smile: “Now you can take this,” he said. “Please get it remade once you are back home.”
I certainly did not expect this kind of action from a white British security official. His act of kindness did not fit in the box I had created for him. I had cast him as the “other”. But he proved otherwise.
No matter how hard we try, today’s circumstances push us to box, stereotype, categorise and judge individuals or groups who are different from us. In recent times stereotyping has become the most comfortable response mechanism while dealing with security issues, both for Muslims as well as Westerners. Such stereotyping widens the gap that exists between Muslim and Western worlds. It limits both groups’ ability to allow for individuality and critical judgment when faced with challenging situations, generating further mistrust.
This incident helped me realise that there are moments and spaces in which our individual actions can alter the stereotypes that we carry for one other. The action that I witnessed left an indelible impression on me, and a renewed belief in the inherent goodness of human beings. Individual actions that go beyond stereotypes might not be a panacea to problems that exist between the Muslim and Western worlds, but they are a step toward better understanding and harmony.

Sara Khan is Media Manager at Search for Common Ground-Pakistan. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service

Source: middle-east-online.com Continue reading..

The IMF has said that the 2001 September terror attacks in the United States have eventually promoted Islamic Finance industry worldwide, as Muslim investors preferred Islamic Banking for investments in their home country in fear of any U.S freeze decision. Based on a research about Islamic Banking, the International Monetary Fund pointed that both 2001 terror attacks and constant rise in oil prices have positively impacted on the rise of Islamic Banking. "Our results suggest that the September 11th attack on the United States had a positive impact on assets of Islamic banks,perhaps because Muslim investors, who have traditionally invested in the West, were compelled to keep more money at home for fear of expropriation, for instance," the IMF explained.
"However, because those attacks and oil price increases happened at about the same time, we regress them together to see if they have different effects on the diffusion of Islamic banking....the result is that the significance of the coefficient on the 9/11 attacks vanishes once oil prices are accounted for. This implies, contrary to conventional wisdom, that the 9/11 attacks did not affect the diffusion of Islamic banking... rather that it coincides with rising oil prices, which are a major cause of the diffusion of Islamic banking."
The study said that while oil prices have a positive and statistically significant impact on the diffusion of Islamic banking, the effect is likely to be asymmetric.
"We would not expect a large fall in oil prices to lead to a large decline in the diffusion of Islamic banking, though diffusion rates would certainly decline. Unfortunately, the use of annual data over a relatively short period (1992-2006) prevents us from testing robustly for asymmetric effects," the IMF said.
"As expected, terms of trade changes, especially the evolution of oil prices, have a statistically significant impact on the diffusion of Islamic banks, which tends to increase when oil prices rise....this is to be expected: whether the extra income is treated as permanent or as a transitory windfall, it will stimulate savings and demand for banking services ranging from mortgages to savings products."
According to the study, inflation has a negatively impacted Islamic banking whereas higher trade largely benefited this Islamic banking system.
According to IMF, Islamic banking, which is concentrated in the Middle East and Malaysia, and is currently expanding to many other countries including USA and UK, has moved from its niche market into the mainstream within the last few decades.
IMF said that development of Islamic banking has also been spurred by the focus and major contributions of Islamic banking on infrastructures and public welfare including roads and housing.
"We found that the probability for Islamic banking to develop in a given country rises with the share of the Muslim population, income per capita, and whether the country is a net exporter of oil. Trading with the Middle East and economic stability also are conducive to diffusion of Islamic banking..... Proximity to Malaysia and Bahrain, the two Islamic financial centers, also matters..... We found that rising interest rates hinder the diffusion of Islamic banking because they raise the opportunity cost for less devout individuals or non-Muslims to put their money with an Islamic bank."
Source: islamonline.com Continue reading..

By: Islamxplored.com

Observing fasting in the Holy month of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. Ramadan is the blessed month of Allah, a month of mercy and forgiveness. Ramadan invites us to be the guests of Allah and to be near to Him. Ramadan is a month of special religious significance in which fasting is observed by Muslims as a means of learning utmost discipline, self-restraint, spiritual cleansing, mental purification and flexibility in life. Fasting involves total abstinence of food, drink, tobacco, and marital intercourse during the daytime.Fasting is also abstinence from falsehood, speaking ill of others, quarelling, sins, crimes and anything that is culturally or socially bad and having negative effects on the community.
Fasting is religious observance to which a Muslim should devote himself, so that he should be able to practice modification and refrain from doing or indulging with bad doings.
This is the month that each of our breath can glorify us. Even the sleeping of man observing fasting is considered to be worship of Allah. Our deeds are most likely to be accepted and supplications are surely answered if done sincerely and with good intention. Fasting enables us to think a while of hunger and thirst of the day of the judgment that we all travel to and it helps us understand the suffering of good numbers of population who are deprived of food and drink due to poverty.
Muslims are highly encouraged to give alms to the needy and poor in this merciful month of Allah. Muslims who are fasting are to maintain good relation with relatives, keep tongues from unwanted or harmful talks and close eyes to anything which is not permissible in Islam. The Holy Ramadan is the month Almighty Allah has chosen for revealing his Quran to the humanity, and there is a Holy night (Lailathul Qadr) in this month that is more glorious than 1000 nights. This is the time Muslims turn to Allah seeking pleasure, seeking repentance and seeking better future of both here and hereafter lives.
How far it is true that we never miss opportunities of sales and promotions schemes of various sellers and products?! Yes, we are best customers of promotions offered by mobile service providers, textiles, seasonal sales, sportswear, electronis and so on. But, same is not the case with promotions offered by Allah. Most of us knowingly or unknowingly miss the promotions that are extremely precious. Ramadan offers the unique promotions that we are never able to predict to get it once again.. Let’s take the opportunities of this promotion scheme that Allah grants us.. A grant offer for worshippers and good doers.. Your deeds are better rewarded. Reciting Holy Quran brings us greater rewards; a letter from Holy Quran brings us one reward in other months, but, 10 rewards in this Holy month…
One who gives iftar to a fasting person during this Holy Month is similar to Him who freed someone, and his past sins will be forgiven by Allah… Allah is most forgiving… When Prophet Muhammad (s) was discussing this hadith, some of his companions asked. All of us are not able to give iftar to others. Prophet’s reply was that Allah gives reward even if the inftar is a drink of water..
Performing the prescribed special prayer called Tharaweeh helps us get away from the Hell fire, and performing an obligatory prayer rewards us 70 prayers’ worth in this month.
Allah opens the doors of Heaven, so let’s ask Allah not to close it for us. Allah closes the doors of hell and therefore let’s ask Allah to keep them closed for us.. Shaythan (Iblees) is imprisoned in this holy month, so let’s ask Almighty Allah not to let him have control on us… May Allah make this Ramadan for us and not against us.. Ameen Continue reading..

By: Siddique Saqafi
Muslims around the world enjoy fasting the month of Ramadan. Fasting in Ramadan is entertainment and worship as well as health care and enjoyment. Abstinence from food and drinks seem fairly difficult to many, but, Muslims really enjoy this. What enjoyments without eating and drinking? The modern entertainment concepts can never agree with this. But, Muslims, regardless of children, youths and women like fasting and do more good deeds in Ramadan than they do in other months. They have been praying to God to bless them with Ramadan for previous two months.
There are different types of fasting in different religions- all fruit fasting, water-only fasting, sugar-free fasting and the like. But, people find it rather significant and strange that fasting in Islam is that a whole country and the whole community worldwide abstains from any sort of food and drinks and avoid wrong deeds from dawn to dusk for a whole month of Ramadan.
Fasting in Islam is not mere abstinence from food and drink, but refraining from all wrongs and evils. Prophet Muhammad (s) says
قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ مَنْ لَمْ يَدَعْ قَوْلَ الزُّورِ وَالْعَمَلَ بِهِ فَلَيْسَ لِلَّهِ حَاجَةٌ فِي أَنْ يَدَعَ طَعَامَهُ وَشَرَابَهُ
"If one does not abandon falsehood in words and deeds, Allah has no need for his abandoning of food and drink." (Swahihul Bukhari-1770)
This Hadith explains the spiritual and moral element of fasting. Fasting is a perfect act of obedience and surrender to God and hence abstaining from any wrong deed that Allah does not like needs to be avoided. Fasting aims at comprehensive purification- purification of physical body from unhealthy proteins and purification of soul from unhealthy deeds.
Fasting in Ramadan is an act of atonement for human’s errors and wrong deeds. Prophet Muhammad (s) says:

وَمَنْ صَامَ رَمَضَانَ إِيمَانًا وَاحْتِسَابًا غُفِرَ لَهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِه
“Whoever fasts in the month of Ramadan, with due belief and seeking the pleasure of Allah, his past errors will be forgiven- (Swaheehul Bukhari- 1768)
Fasting is a training that the believer can act piously and fearing Allah. Ramadan is the time many mosques become centers for Islamic learning and spiritual revival. Quran classes, Hadith learning programs and Islamic speeches provide better opportunities to Muslims to be more aware of religious matters.

There is no discrimination in Islam. Ramadan announces this spirit of unity and belonging within the Muslim community worldwide. Muslims millions, around the world, in the same manner, do fasting during the same month. Regardless of males and females, rich and poor, Muslims from all ethnic groups and regional or social background do fasting with same experience of abstinence of food and drinks and wrong deeds with neither difference nor special privilege for any group. Continue reading..