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Islamic Banking Gains Momentum

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Hargeisa, 27 June 2009 (Somalilandcurrent) – Governments trying to set framework for establishing Islamic Banking. Conventional banks trying to extend their line of service by Islamic Banking. And Islamic banks are expanding their network globally. Islamic Banking is on the rise! But despite that impressive growth standards have to be set in order to not dilute the quality of Islamic Banking.

Recently there is a lot of talk about Islamic Banking as it seems to have proofed more resilient than conventional banking.
However the total number of Islamic banks is still small and according to online-researches conducted by Shariah-Fortune estimated at around 350-400 institutions worldwide. Compared to around 9,500 banks located in the USA the Islamic Banking sector still seems pretty small.

But its relativity small numbers bear potential for extraordinary growth rates. According to estimates Islamic Banking is one of the world’s fasted growing financial sectors, rising 15-20 % p.a. Asian Banker Research Group found out that growth rate is as high as 26.7 % among the 100 largest Islamic banks.

Islamic-banking

Basically Islamic Banking is not only restricted to about 1.5 bn Muslims; indeed even non-Muslims can profit from the advantages of Shariah-compliant banking. Most of the banks offer their services to non-Muslims as well.

Islamic banks are located in 50 countries worldwide and can be found in countries like Algeria, Azerbaijan,…Yemen. Major Islamic Banking hubs are Malaysia, Bahrain, UK and UAE.

With regards to the above mentioned many countries and banks now trying to establish or expand Shariah-compliant banking.

A recent example is the mainly Muslim nation of Kazakhstan in which 3-4 Islamic banks are planning to set up operations soon. Special attention should be paid to China. The China Banking Regulatory Commission had given approval to a pilot project of Bank of Ningxia to undertake Islamic financial services in the People’s Republic of China. Even African countries like Nigeria or Senegal trying now to expand their Islamic Finance systems. In March 2009, a framework for non-interest banking was released by the Central Bank of Nigeria. More examples could be named.

However many of these countries are not yet ready to offer Shariah-compliant banking services as they either lack human resources, expertise or the economical and political framework to do so. According to Dr. Al Jarhi, President of the International Association for Islamic Economics, ‘…one of the most serious challenges is represented in the need for set standards and criteria for the governance of Shariah boards at Islamic banks’.

Shariah-Fortune is a service provider in the Islamic Finance Intelligence. It provides informational content with regards to Islamic banking & financing, insurance/takaful, real estate, investment, asset and wealth management and other services related to Islamic finance. Shariah-Fortune provides the world´s biggest company online directory for Islamic Finance with more than 800 institutions in 50 countries worldwide. It covers nearly every geographic region and segment in the Shariah compliant products industry, sourced from the internet through a substantial secondary research effort coupled with a high quality data cleansing process.

Periodically Shariah-Fortune issues a free market report about the size, market players and development of the Islamic Finance sector.

Shariah-Fortune is headquartered in Dubai. For more information on Shariah-Fortune please email info@shariah-fortune.com.

Is promoting Sufi Islam the best chance for peace in Somalia?

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Hargeisa, 26 June 2009 (Somalilandcurrent) – Some armed groups who adhere to a more moderate interpretation of Islam have begun battling Al Qaeda-linked extremists.

Somalia is beginning to seem more and more like the Swat Valley of eastern Africa – a place where Al Qaeda-linked insurgents are setting up religious law courts, assassinating government ministers, and spreading their tentacles farther and deeper.

This week, Al Shabab, the top militant Islamist force that controls most of the country, tried and convicted four thieves. Their punishment: amputation of one hand and one foot each, in accordance with a strict, literal reading of Islamic law. The sentence has been temporarily delayed, but it’s the latest sign that Somalia is fast becoming an extremist haven. (Last month, Islamists invited a crowd to see a man suspected of stealing $90 worth of clothing get his hand cut off, BBC reports in a detailed eye witness account.)

And as in Pakistan, many are looking to armed tribes in Somalia who adhere to Sufism – a mystical, moderate interpretation of Islam – as the best chance for peace.

A Somalian writer – identifying himself only as Mr. Muthuma – writes in an opinion piece published on Bartamaha, an independent Somalian news portal, that a “new axis” of conflict has formed in Somalia, in which fighters are battling one another along religious lines.

Moderate Sufi scholars, whose tolerant beliefs have come under attack, have decided to fight back against al-Shabaab for destroying their shrines and murdering their imams….

It is an Islamist versus Islamist war, and the Sufi scholars are part of a broader moderate movement that Western nations are counting on to repel Somalia’s increasingly powerful extremists.

Whether Somalia becomes a terrorist haven and a genuine regional threat – which is already beginning to happen, with hundreds of heavily armed foreign jihadists flocking here to fight for Al Shabab – or whether this country steadies itself and ends the years of bloodshed, may hinge on who wins these ideological, sectarian battles.

But not everyone agrees. Ali Eteraz, writing in Foreign Policy this month, laments the goal of propping up Sufis against other religious sects.

The usual response by supporters of the Sufi solution is that thanks to the extremists, Islam has already been politicized, and therefore propagandist measures promoting Sufism are the only way to fight back. But that’s precisely the problem: Propaganda is inherently discrediting. Besides, state-sponsored Sufism … gets everything backward: In an environment where demagogues are using religion to conceal their true political and material ambitions, establishing another official, “preferred” theological ideology won’t roll back their influence. Minimizing the role of all religion in government would be a better idea. Only then could people begin to speak about rights and liberty.

It remains to be seen how this internal struggle will play out. In the meantime, could an “Islamic-led international engagement” from outside be the answer?

That’s the argument of Nuradin Dirie, a former presidential candidate in Puntland, a semiautonomous region in Somalia. Somaliweyn, a Somali news portal, reprinted this speech Mr. Dirie gave recently in London:

Security and capacity for governance, economic growth and forces of moderation. Where can we find such ingredients of international intervention? How about a state-building intervention that is initiated, financed, and staffed by a coalition of Muslim countries? It would have to be specifically designed to build foundations for governance, investment in economic infrastructure and something quite new. We need something I will call a ‘moderation package.’ An intervention made up of prominent Muslim scholars that can challenge forces of extremism with messages of peace, order and coexistence with the rest of the world.

The defining characteristic of this intervention should be that it is a Muslim World project. The UN and the rest of the International community can support this initiative at an arms-length.

By David Montero
The Christian Science Monitor

Reading Sisters rooted in Africa

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Hargeisa, 26 June 2009 (Somalilandcurrent) – When 13-year-old Ifrah Hashi’s family moved back to Somaliland from Canada, she noticed many young girls couldn’t read. She knew she had to do something.

So she gathered all her favourite books as a child, invited the girls to her backyard and read them stories.

“They loved the stories,” said Hashi, now 18. “They had never heard of things I had grown up hearing about, like Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood.”

At school she recruited a couple of friends and with their help started teaching the young girls how to read.

The group, Reading Sisters, still exists today even though Hashi has since moved back to Canada to attend school. With the help of the school librarian at Oakridge secondary school, where she graduated this month, she has book drives throughout the year and sends the books back home.

Hashi is one of 13 London students who won a federal millennium scholarship, ranging from $25,000 to $4,000.

Hashi, who will go to the University of Western Ontario in the fall, won a $20,500 scholarship.

“I was really honoured to have won,” she said.

Hashi said returning to Somaliland, a self-declared independent region in the Horn of African ravaged by civil war, was a life-changing experience.

“It was nothing like I’d ever been used to in Canada,” she said.

Her family started a microcredit organization, which provides interest-free loans between $30 and $50 to widows with children so they can start their own company.

Many widows buy a wheelbarrow to transport things, hence the organization’s name Barrows of Hope. Others buy pans to wash clothes or chickens to sell eggs.

“Seeing the way some people live there was really heartbreaking and I felt I had to do something about it,” said Hashi, who is the secretary for Barrows of Hope and hopes to be a teacher one day. “I was always aware of things going on in the world and I like to reach out to others in their time of suffering . . . my parents raised me to be socially conscious of people less fortunate than us.”

Other London millennium scholarship winners are national winners Jasmine Irwin and Nikhita Singh, who both got $25,000 scholarships; provincial winners Younjei Chung, Alison Greaves, Radha Joseph and Nicole Turner, with $20,500 scholarships and local winners Jennifer Aziz, Alyssa Craik, Diana Montano-Rubio, Jasmine Stapleford, Thomas Sullivan and Julia Tsaltas, who each won $4,500 scholarships. Some 9,000 people applied for the scholarships.

Source: The London Free Press

ONLF denies killing civilians in southern Ethiopia (Press Release)

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ONLF Press Release: Response to A False Accusation

The claim by the website, Somalilandpress, which fabricated baseless allegation that ONLF fighters killed several civilian traders from Hargeisa, is not based on facts. The concocted story continues further to say that ONLF carried out this act because it was angry with people from Northern Somalia’s relationship with Ethiopia.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front regards all Somalis as brethren and does not hold any grudges against any groups from Somalia despite many transgressions by some Somali warlords against the Somali people from Ogaden and their legitimate struggle for total emancipation. The Somali people in the Ogaden and the Somalis in North Somalia share a common heritage, kinship and economic ties that benefit both peoples. It is our conviction that these mischievous acts will not affect the relationship between the two brotherly peoples as the agents of the TPLF regime from Ethiopia try to destroy their peaceful coexistence.

The raison d’être for ONLF’s struggle is to emancipate the Somalis in Ogaden regardless of clan, believe or affiliation and there is no reason why it should target parts of its own people. Any entity or group trying to sow conflict and division among the Somali sub-clans in the Ogaden will fail. People with this attitude should know that this outmoded logic will benefit no one and they will be held responsible for unnecessary consequences of their machinations.

It is not simple thing to forget that the practice of continuous rendition of people from Ogaden who seek safety and security in Hargeisa to please Meles and his henchmen. Hence it is no wander if such paid stooges and their sympathisers, such as, Somalilanderpress redouble their efforts to tarnish the name of ONLF and incite hatred among the people of both sides of the border.

Finally the Somali people of the Ogaden wish peace and stability for all Somalis in Somalia and hope this will be reciprocated.

  • Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)

Singer Michael Jackson dead at 50

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Michael Jackson has died at age 50 after being rushed to UCLA Medical Center.

Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda told the L.A. Times that Jackson was not breathing when paramedics arrived at his home and CPR was performed.

TMZ.com reported that he may have suffered cardiac arrest.
Jackson had been due to start a series of comeback concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010. The singer, whose hits included “Thriller” and “Billie Jean,” had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months.

The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within minutes of going on sale in March.

His lifetime record sales tally is believed to be around 750 million, which, added to the 13 Grammy Awards he received, makes him one of the most successful entertainers of all time.

He lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation.

There were concerns about Jackson’s health in recent years but the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors.

A life in music
Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children. Five Jackson boys — Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael — first performed together at a talent show when Michael was 6. They walked off with first prize and went on to become a best-selling band, The Jackson Five, and then The Jackson 5.

Jackson made his first solo album in 1972, and released “Thriller” in 1982, which became a smash hit that yielded seven top-10 singles. The album sold 21 million copies in the United States and at least 27 million worldwide.

The next year, he unveiled his signature “moonwalk” dance move while performing “Billie Jean” during an NBC special.

In 1994, Jackson married Elvis Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Jackson married Debbie Rowe the same year and had two children, before splitting in 1999. The couple never lived together.

Jackson has three children named Prince Michael I, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II, known for his brief public appearance when his father held him over the railing of a hotel balcony, causing widespread criticism.

Check back with msnbc.com for updates on this breaking story.

© 2009 msnbc.com

Somaliland Government rejects US meeting on Somalia

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Hargeisa (Somalilandcurrent)- Somaliland Government says they would not attend a conference about Somalia that will take place in USA, though Somaliland has been invited to attend the meeting.

Somaliland Foreign Affairs Ministers, Abdullahi Muhammad Duale, told the press in Hargeysa [the capital of Somaliland], that his government was not ready to attend the conference aimed at discussing Somalia affairs.

He said the conference had nothing to do with Somaliland, and that it was for Somalia and Puntland regional autonomous [in northeastern Somalia]. Somalilandpress reporter in Hargeysa, said that the minister, who returned from Kenyan capital, Nairobi, took the decision after meeting with US embassy officials in Nairobi.

The minister said that Somalia and Somaliland are two different countries, adding that Somaliland was ready to talk with US as an independent country.

Reports say that US congress has invited Somali government, Puntland and Somaliland to attend a meeting over Somalia crisis.

By Abdinasir Mohamed

 

Ethiopian premier says ready to deploy troops if Somali government overthrown

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Mogadishu (Somalilandcurrent)- Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has said his country is ready to once again deploy its troops in Somalia if Islamist groups manage to overthrow the Somali president. Mr. Zenawe said his government has strengthened security along the border with Somalia and has made a decision to send troops to the neighbouring country if at any point it feels threatened in order to ensure security in the country. “Our troops are ready to return to Somalia if we feel there is a potential for danger and if the Transitional Federal Government [TFG], which we have good relations with, is overthrown,” Zenawi said in a press conference in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. “So far, we do not have any set plans in which we intend to go into Somalia, however, we will closely monitor the situation in the Horn of African country and we will deploy our troops if the current legitimate government in the country is overthrown.” He added. The Ethiopian Government had deployed its forces in Somalia two years ago and ousted the Islamic Courts Administration which was in control of the country at the time. Ethiopian troops withdrew from the country early this year after an agreement in which the current TFG was formed in Djibouti was reached. The spokesman for the Al-Shabab group, Sheikh Ali Mahmud Rage held a news conference in Mogadishu in which he said they will fight any foreign troops deployed in the country in order to back the TFG which they are currently fighting. There are already many Ethiopian troops with battle wagons present in central Somalia regions, particularly in Hiran. Senior officials of these Ethiopian troops that are currently in Somalia have said they are in the country in order to look after the security of their own country.

By Abdinasir Mohamed

Email: abdinasir4@gmail.com

Mogadishu-Somalia

Africa Weather Information Network Launched

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Hargeisa, 25 June 2009  – About 5,000 new automatic weather stations are set to be deployed across Africa, under a climate change initiative announced today by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Global Humanitarian Forum, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and mobile telecommunications companies Ericsson and Zain.

The innovative public-private partnership launched the “Weather Info for All” initiative to improve Africa’s weather monitoring network in the face of the growing impact of climate change.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region facing the most immediate risk of droughts and floods due to climate change, according to a recent Global Humanitarian Forum report. Agricultural yields in some areas are expected to fall by 50 per cent as early as 2020.

The 5,000 automatic weather stations will be installed at new and existing mobile network sites throughout Africa over the coming years, aiming to increase dissemination of weather information via mobile phones that can reach the continent’s most remote communities.

At the launch in Geneva, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, said “This is a great example for twenty-first century collaborative humanitarian and development work between public and private sectors.”

Through its Mobile Innovation Center in Africa, Ericsson will develop mobile applications to help communicate weather information developed by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) via mobile phones.

“The massive growth of mobile subscribers in Africa is the perfect opportunity for the telecoms community to collaborate with national partners to strengthen weather networks and systems across the continent,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson.

The initial deployment, already begun in Zain networks, focuses on the area around Lake Victoria in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The first 19 automatic weather stations installed will double the weather monitoring capacity of the Lake region.

“Once the switch is turned on, a flow of extensive weather data will become available throughout Africa, with benefits extending from the national policy makers to the smallholder farmers,” said Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Approximately 70 per cent of Africans rely on farming for their livelihood. Meteorological information will become increasingly critical as changing weather patterns render obsolete traditional knowledge relating to agriculture that African farmers have relied on for centuries.

“For food production, almost every decision is linked to weather, climate and water parameters,” said Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the WMO. “Working through NMHSs, WMO will identify weather information needs, advise on technical requirements and help disseminate the information. This initiative may prove to be one of the most important for African meteorology in decades.”


UN News Center

AU Peacekeepers to Launch Somalia ‘Peace Radio’

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Hargeisa, 25 June 2009  – The African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) will launch a radio station aimed at promoting peace in the conflict-torn Horn of Africa nation, a spokesman told AFP Wednesday.

“The planning for this project began last year. AMISOM, the United Nations and the Somali government are all be involved,” Ugandan army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye.

Uganda is the largest troop contributor to the 4,300-strong AMISOM force, which also includes a large Burundian contingent.

Kulayigye, who did not provide an exact date for the launch, said that while all decisions on programming had not yet been finalised, all broadcasts will be “educational, and will be catered to enhancing peace.”

He said the station would in broadcast English, Somali and Kiswahili.

AMISOM was deployed in early 2007 but has managed little more than keeping a weak transitional federal government on life support.

It is currently protecting internationally-backed President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in his Mogadishu palace as an alliance of insurgent groups presses on with a six-week-old military offensive to topple him.

Somalia has had no effective central authority since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre touched off a bloody power struggle that has defied around a dozen different peace initiatives.


Source: AFP

Insurgent Court in Somalia Delays Amputations for Theft Suspects

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Al-Shabab still controls parts of Somalia's south and central regions after being chased out of Mogadishu [File: AP]
Al-Shabab still controls parts of Somalia's south and central regions after being chased out of Mogadishu [File: AP]

Hargeisa, 24 June 2009  – A court under the control of a Somali Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab has ordered four young men suspected of stealing guns and mobile phones to have a hand and a leg amputated, but the punishment was postphoned. An al-Shabab spokesman told the Associated Press the sentence would be carried out but was delayed because of fears the men could bleed to death in the hot weather. The human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned the amputation sentences as a violation of international law.

The court in Somalia’s war-torn capital Mogadishu, was set up by the hardline Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab, which the U.S. government has labeled a terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaida. The court delivered its verdict Monday morning in front of a crowd of hundreds.

An al-Shabab leader in Mogadishu, Sheikh Hussein Ali Fidow, said by implementing Islamic law, the group would restore peace and stability to the country.

Once we eradicate the big enemy from an area, smaller enemies appear, he said. We arrested them for robbing people, and they have been sentenced to have their hands and legs amputated. We will not use such sentences to target any particular tribe or group, but we are implementing sharia law.

The group has imposed strict versions of Islamic sharia law in areas it controls, which include much of southern Somalia, as well as parts of Mogadishu. In particular there have been reports of amputations, stoning, and flogging in the southern port city of Kismayo, a Shabab stronghold. There have been fewer reports of such punishments in Mogadishu.

“Cruel, inhumane, degrading”

The human rights group Amnesty International called the punishment described in the most recent ruling as “cruel, inhuman, and degrading.” A researcher with the organization’s Africa program, Benedicte Goderiaux, says amputations are a violation of international law. She also rejects al-Shabab’s claim that such actions are necessary to restore law and order in the notoriously lawless country.

“If they are really concerned about the security of the residents of Mogadishu, there are many other steps that they could take such as stopping indiscriminate attacks which disproportionately affect civilians, such as taking measures to spare the civilian population unnecessary suffering as a result of the armed conflict and instructing its fighters not to target civilians and not to target journalists,” said Goderiaux.

Goderiaux said it can be difficult to ascertain the views of residents of areas under Shabab control towards the militia.

“People who live in areas under al-Shabab control are obviously very scared in the same way as journalists and activists are generally very scared,” she said. “The al-Shabab faction in control of Kismayo for example has already carried out two amputations since the beginning of the year and one of them was done in public. By doing them publicly, al-Shabab wants to send a message of fear to the population.”

She notes however, that when the Islamic Courts Union briefly controlled Mogadishu in 2006, the population there, while welcoming the return to relative order, pressed the authorities to curb the more severe rules.

After being ousted from Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops in late 2006, the Islamist insurgency splintered. The more moderate faction now controls the internationally-backed transitional government, while the hard-liners are trying to topple the government.

Since early May, al-Shabab and the allied Hizbul Islam militia have been pursuing a renewed offensive against the government. The U.N. estimates that 159,000 people have been displaced from their homes. Over the weekend, the government declared a state of emergency and requested intervention by neighboring countries, including Kenya and Ethiopia. Those countries, however, have so far resisted the appeal.

On Monday, President Ahmed said the government was implementing martial law, though considering the limited control exercised by the government on the ground, it is not clear what impact the move will have.


By: By Derek Kilner
VOA