Throwing babies off tall buildings “for good health”

by Iva Skoch on

When I watched this video, I honestly didn’t think they were actually going to throw the baby off the building! They did.

Granted, it was a soft landing, but still.

Muslims in western India have been observing a bizarre ritual – they’ve been throwing their young children off a tall building to improve their health, writes Reuters.The faithful have been observing the ritual at a shrine in Solapur, in western India’s Maharastra, for more than five hundred years. They believe it will make their children strong and say no accidents have ever happened.

I think it’s time Islam hired a global PR agency to deal with all their publicity crisis. This one is no crowd pleaser, either.

Halal Inn — Britain’s first Islamic pub. Huh?

by Abha Malpani on

Britain’s first Islamic pub “Halal Inn” recently opened its doors in Oldham. It’s being marketed as a “pub” that offers everything any pub would, except alcohol. So…urrr…it’s a cafe, no? A cafe where you can play pool, listen to Islamic music, eat Asian food. So it’s a cafe targeted to the Muslim population in Oldham.

Fine. It’s great to have hangouts that adhere to certain cultural/religious rules, it offers diversity — I’m happy that people are building places catering to specific lifestyles.

Non-Muslims may not understand how significant this place may be for Muslims, but why can’t they market it like that then? I mean: it’s not a pub (so don’t call it one); it’s not for non-Muslim people — if it was an open establishment welcoming everyone who wants to go out and not drink, they would not call it “Halal Inn”; the article says that although everyone is welcome, the crowd is predominantly male.

So to rephrase: Britain has opened its first Islamic cafe for Muslim men. Good for them. But why is this place being glorified to deceive? It’s not a novel concept, in fact, it’s not even a clear concept.

Instead of trying to modernize and open a clearly Islamic idea by tagging it an “pub”, they would have been better off (and more successful) if they made it into a full-fledged cultural cafe, perhaps more “Arab” style than Muslim. Sheesha, Arabic music, ethnic decor, typical Islamic food, Arabic tea from a big mud pot, etc; then it would have a concept, serve the Muslim population, and be of cultural interest to a much wider audience.

Halal Tourism in the Middle East?

by Abha Malpani on


An international report from the World Travel Market that opened this week in London has coined the term “Halal Tourism” as something that the Middle East needs to begin exploiting, especially with the increase of inter-regional tourists.

A halal airline, halal restaurants…ummm…but wait a minute — in my knowledge, Muslim countries are “halal”, i.e. the entire Middle East is halal — so, I don’t see how marketing services under “Halal Tourism” will do much when it has always been a given i.e. default.

Airlines like Emirates, Gulf Air and Qatar Airways serve only halal food and have praying areas or at least a direction that marks Mecca — at the airports and in their aircrafts. In fact, they have incorporated Islamic necessities so well that it makes all passengers feel comfortable — Muslim or not.
On a similar note, Dubai has what I like to call some “considerate” rules that allow it to keep its international spirit but at the same time serves well to those more religious Muslims. For e.g. it has “pink-taxis” with women drivers, undoubtedly only for women and families, women-only days at the beach, and they even sell halal cosmetics!

Now, will things like this encourage women from around the region to travel alone to Dubai or say Algeria? from Saudi Arabia, for example? I highly doubt it.

In fact, shouldn’t they be doing the opposite to attract a market from outside the Middle East? For instance, not long ago Dubai introduced “Pork-Sections For Non-Muslims Only” in supermarkets to cater to the high percentage of international population that lives in the city. Also, drinking alcohol is legal in Dubai — except in Ramadan when they serve alcohol but only to non-Muslims (they check ID!).

If Halal Tourism needs to be promoted, it should be outside the Middle East, beginning with countries that don’t make it difficult for people from the region to get visas to their country, don’t you think?

[Via AFP]

Graft Busting Ruining the Party in Bangladesh

by Martha Edwards on

In Bangladesh, the lower classes rely on the wealthy Muslims to provide them with gifts of cash and clothes during Ramadan. But this year, anti-corruption agencies are vetoing public displays of wealth, which includes giving out generous gifts. So far, 170 members of the upper crust have actually been detained for being to giving. And the new restrictions are sure putting a damper on the celebrations for the peasants.

But a few brave wealthy people have braved the so-called graft busters and given out gifts regardless. And members of the lower class are getting up before dawn to join the line-up to receive one of these gifts. Sounds a lot like a new IKEA opening!

For more info on graft busting in Bangladesh, click here.

Worldwide Eid-Al-Fitr Celebrations

by Abha Malpani on

I’d say, the Eid-Al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan is equivalent on scale to Christmas and the Hindu celebration of Diwali.

Ramadan is all about charity, sharing, reaching out to the less fortunate and thanking God for what you have. Eid-Al-Fitr marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and is mainly a family celebration. This particular Eid sees the largest migration as 1.2 billion Muslims around the world make plans to be with the family. According to the Gulf News: 14.8 million in Indonesia were expected to head to their homes and 1.2 million cars in Malaysia were expected to hit the nations biggest highway.
Generally Eid-Al-Fitr is celebrated by an early morning prayer, a special meal with home-baked sweets for desert; they wear new clothes and in some countries ‘Eidi’ (money for Eid) is given to the children.

Now, having said that, what I saw for Eid celebrations in Madrid were slightly different. I went to a Ramadan/Eid tent where Sudanese music artist Rasha rocked the crowd with tunes in Arabic to afro-reggae-jazz-Arabic music; free Arabic tea and sweets were served and you could hear the odd person saying ‘Eid Mubarak’.

However more than the Eid spirit, was the amount of alcoholic ‘spirit’ I could see around me. People brought in liters of beer and calimochos (red-wine and cola), and were smoking pot in same tent along with their Muslim friends who were celebrating the end of their fasting for the religious festival. Having lived in a Muslim country for a significant period of life (alcohol is forbidden in Islam), I found this rather sacrilegious but I suppose inevitable at the same time.

Should bringing alcohol into a Ramadan tent have been forbidden? How can you experience the different cultures of a multi-cultural society without insulting the tradition and hurting democracy at the same time?