‘Osama and Obama bad, Qadri good’: Murderer has been rewarded by clerics and titled as ‘Hero’

Barelvi scholars have condemned both Osama bin Laden and the United States as “killers of thousands of Muslims”, while demanding the release of the “heroic” Mumtaz Hussan Qadri, the self-confessed killer of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer. Speaking at the annual degree awarding ceremony at Aiwan-i-Iqbal for 40 religious scholars on Saturday night, Idara Sirat-i-Mustaqeem head Dr […]

Saudi efforts for good Iran relations continue

By SULTAN AL-TAMIMI | ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: The Kingdom’s bilateral dialogue with Iran will continue, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said at a joint press conference with his British counterpart William Hague in Jeddah on Tuesday. “I met with Iran’s former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Tehran and the next […]

Welcome to Palestine – if you can get in

Israel’s threat to deny visitor’s entry to Palestine is as disturbing as it is shocking. Our protest will be a civil society tsunami Palestinians have globally touted an array of rights that Israel systematically denies. There is the right of return, the right of freedom of movement, the right to […]

For God’s sake – stop talking

The US takes pride in its separation of church and state, but the current political scene is ‘strangely’ religious.   Lately, there would seem to be a whole lot more people who have a direct channel to the Big Guy Upstairs than one could have humanly thought possible. It is oft-said […]

Standard Bank unit wins Nigerian sharia licence

By Maram Mazen Khartoum Stanbic IBTC Bank, a unit of JSE-listed Standard Bank, has won approval from Nigeria’s central bank to provide Islamic banking services in Africa’s most populous nation. A preliminary licence was awarded to Stanbic last week for a sharia-compliant banking window, the first one given to a commercial bank in the country, Central Bank […]