Muslim World News On-line
Date of Publication: May 2000
INDONESIAN MUSLIMS FOR GLOBAL PEACE AND JUSTICE
Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim.
Assalamu'alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarokaatuh
MIDDLE EAST NEWS TODAY:
- MORE THAN 100 STUDENTS ARRESTED AFTER DEMONSTRATION OVER NOVEL
- IRAQI INJURED IN U.S.-BRITAIN AIR RAIDS: BAGHDAD
- AMEC SIGNS $400 MILLION GAS CONTRACT IN SAUDI
- BEIRUT TAKES BACK CONTROL OF VILLAGE IN ISRAELI-OCCUPIED ZONE
- ALL INTERNET ACCESS IN SAUDI ARABIA IS CONTROLLED BY A NODE
Wednsday, May 10, 2000
MORE THAN 100 STUDENTS ARRESTED AFTER DEMONSTRATION OVER NOVEL
CAIRO, May 9 (AFP)-More than 100 students at Al-Azhar University were
arrested following violent demonstrations over a novel the students believe
blasphemed Islam, Egyptian officials said Tuesday.
About 60 of the students faced prosecution by a state security court, the
officials said. Several thousand students demonstrated Sunday night and
Monday at Al-Azhar to denounce Syrian writer Haider Haider*s novel "Feast
of the Sea Algae," which the students say portrays the Prophet Mohammed as
a skirt-chaser.
Culture Minister Faruq Hosni, whose ministry recently published a new
edition of the 15-year-old book, was quoted by Al-Ahram newspaper on
Tuesday as saying that no copies of the book were on sale.
Two days earlier, Hosni had defended the book and said it was available in
bookstores. More than 50 students were hurt, some by rubber bullets, after
the clashes with police, emergency services said, while a dozen remained in
hospitals.
Rocks thrown by demonstrators also hurt three police officers. Police
remained stationed at Al-Azhar, an international center for Islamic
theological studies that has 195,000 students in all disciplines. No
further disturbances were reported.
The protesters Monday had called for Haider*s death and accused the sheikh
of Al-Azhar, Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, of having been silent over the
affair, the liberal opposition newspaper Al-Wafd reported.
The demonstrations began in the girls* section of the university, after
authorities took down photocopies of an Islamist newspaper article
denouncing the novel. The students then left their buildings shouting
slogans against the novel, and Hosni, before clashing with the police.
Haider denied his novel is meant to insult Islam and says the campaign
against "Feast of the Sea Algae" is based on passages taken out of context.
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Wednsday, May 10, 2000
IRAQI INJURED IN U.S.-BRITAIN AIR RAIDS: BAGHDAD
BAGHDAD, May 9 (AFP)-An Iraqi was injured Tuesday when U.S. and British
planes bombed civilian and service installations in northern Iraq, a
military spokesperson said here, quoted by the official INA news agency.
"The planes flew in from Turkish airspace over the provinces of Dohuk,
Erbil and Nineveh, attacking installations and injuring an Iraqi citizen,"
he said, adding "The Iraqi air defense batteries swung into action, forcing
the planes to flee to their bases in Turkey."
Earlier the U.S. military said its warplanes bombed northern Iraq after
being tracked by radar and coming under fire during routine patrols over
the northern no-fly zone. The aircraft "dropped ordnance on elements of the
Iraqi integrated air defense system," the Stuttgart-based U.S. European
Command said in a statement received in Ankara.
All the planes returned safely to their base in Incirlik in southern
Turkey, it added. Some 40 British and U.S. planes are based at Incirlik to
patrol the northern no-fly zone imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War to
protect the region*s Kurdish population.
A similar exclusion zone was also set up over southern Iraq to protect the
Shi*ite Muslim population there and is patrolled by U.S. and British
aircraft based in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Iraq does not recognize the zones, which are not authorized by any specific
U.N. resolution, and has regularly fired on aircraft patrolling them, since
joint U.S. and British air raids on Baghdad in December 1998.
The United States and Britain say the planes only target military
objectives in self-defense but the Iraqis say civilians and civilian
installations are frequently hit. Baghdad says 296 people have been killed
and 864 injured since December 1998.
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Wednsday, May 10, 2000
AMEC SIGNS $400 MILLION GAS CONTRACT IN SAUDI
RIYADH, May 9 (AFP)-British company AMEC has signed a $400-million contract
to build a gas treatment installation in Saudi Arabia, Al-Riyadh newspaper
reported Tuesday.
AMEC will construct installations to separate gas from oil pumped from the
Berri oil field in the east of the kingdom, a project that will be
completed around mid-2001, according to Al-Riyadh.
The other companies in competition were Japan*s JGC and Toyo, France*s
Technip, the Italian firms Snamprogetti and ABB Lummus Global, and the US
subsidiary of the Swiss-Swedish group ABB, the paper said.
Saudi Arabia sits on top of an estimated 261 billion barrels, a quarter of
the world*s crude reserves.
The kingdom also holds a fifth of the world*s gas reserves - after Russia,
Iran, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - estimated at six trillion cubic
meters (204 trillion cubic feet).
One-third of its gas reserves are non-associated gas, while the rest is
tied to oil production subject to OPEC output quotas.
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Wednsday, May 10, 2000
BEIRUT TAKES BACK CONTROL OF VILLAGE IN ISRAELI-OCCUPIED ZONE
BEIRUT, May 9 (AFP)-Lebanon Tuesday took back control of the village of
Aaramta in the Israeli-occupied zone, after it was abandoned by Israel*s
proxy South Lebanon Army (SLA), announced officials here.
The local authorities sent a tractor, which dismantled the roadblock of
earth, and concrete slabs, which the SLA had erected at the entrance to the
village, officials in the office of Prime Minister Selim Hoss said.
The SLA lost its position in Aaramta on April 28 when it was seized by
Shi*ite Muslim Hezbollah, who planted explosive devices before withdrawing,
killing three SLA men and injuring four others.
The extension of Lebanese authority to Aaramta comes after the SLA gave up
its post in Shir Azur, the next hamlet in the zone on Sunday night. The SLA
abandoned another position, Kfarhuna, in the same central sector, in
January, leaving Aaramta as the first point of access into the occupied
zone.
In February it withdrew from Sojoud which security sources described as an
"important strategic position" controlling the Hezbollah stronghold of the
Iqlim al-Tuffah hills. In June last year the militia withdrew from the
whole of the Jezzine salient which it had controlled with Israeli army
backing for 14 years.
Source : Islam On-line 10/05/00
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Wednsday, May 10, 2000
ALL INTERNET ACCESS IN SAUDI ARABIA IS CONTROLLED BY A NODE
By Frank Gardner in Riyadh
The authorities in Saudi Arabia say they are winning the war against
pornography on the internet.
The director of the government organisation that monitors all Saudi
internet traffic, Dr Fahad al-Hoymany, says he believes his unit is
succeeding in blocking all the major pornographic sites.
But he admits that it is hard to keep up when new sites are appearing
almost every hour. The country*s 30 ISPs, or Internet Service Providers,
are all linked into a central node in the capital. For the estimated
130,000 users, access to the Saudi internet is controlled by this node.
No censorship experts
It is housed in a secure ground-floor room in the King Abdulaziz City of
Science and Technology (KACST). There are no teams of censorship experts,
just technicians. Some of them are from Finland, who operate filter
programmes bought in from abroad.
Dr Hoymany says the conservative and religious culture of the Saudi people
means they want to be sure that if they log onto the net they will not be
offended.
As well as porn, the Saudi authorities block access to any sites they
believe could stir up religious hatred. Websites giving advice on how to
make your own bomb are also off-limits.
International calls
But for those who can afford the international phone bills, a simple dial
up call to an internet server outside the Saudi kingdom will easily
outmanoeuvre the system.
Dr Hoymany knows this and he takes a philosophical attitude. He says the
internet in Saudi Arabia is still in its infancy, having been formally
launched less than 18 months ago.
He says the authorities are now focusing their attentions on e-commerce,
for which there is no legal framework in Saudi Arabia.
While neighbouring Gulf states like Bahrain and the UAE are busy promoting
on-line business, Dr Hoymany says Saudi banks are not yet ready to process
transactions made over the internet.
Saudi Arabia may be in the midst of sweeping economic reforms but it now
risks being left behind in this fast expanding global market.
Wassalamu'alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarokaatuh
(DI-10/05/00)
Source : Islam on-line & BBC
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