Ople to attend meeting of Islamic foreign ministers
PHILIPPINE Foreign Secretary Blas Ople has been invited to attend a plenary meeting of his Islamic counterparts inIran next week, an official said Wednesday.
The invitation was forwarded to Ople's office by Iranian envoy to Manila Gholamreza Yousefi, who said Iran wanted Ople to be a "guest" of the conference from May 28 to 31 in Tehran.
"We have just submitted to the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) the invitation from our foreign minister," Yousefi told reporters.
This would be the first time a Philippine foreign minister would attend a plenary session of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). A diplomatic source said Ople was expected to press the Philippines' bid for observer status in the powerful 57-nation pan-Islamic body, a position held currently by the former Muslim separatist group Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The OIC helped broker a peace deal betweenManila and the MNLF in 1995, with the rebels dropping their independence bid to settle for a limited self-rule.
Sources said, however, that the Philippines may have a hard time convincing the OIC to grant its request since certain economic provisions of the peace pact have not been fully implemented
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Taken From:
http://www.inq7.net/brk/2003/may/22/brkpol_6-1.htm NEW DEGREE IN ISLAMIC STUDIES IN U.K
Muslim and non-Muslim students in Leicester will soon have the chance to study locally for a joint honors degree in Islamic studies.
De Montfort University (DMU) and Leicester's Muslim Community College (MCC) launched the new scheme yesterday. The MCC was created by the Leicester Islamic Academy to promote further and higher education for their own students.
It will be the first Islamic studies degree based in the city and the East Midlands region. The three-year degree is expected to start in September 2003 and will be taught at the college and the university.
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http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=104417&command=displayContent&sourceNode=104395&contentPK=5679758Islamic Scholars Reject Obasanjo’s Re-Election
KANO, Nigeria,
Islamic scholars yesterday rejected the re-election of Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo as fraudulent, raising fears that religious divisions could fuel the country’s political crisis. Obasanjo is due to be sworn in next week for his second term, and was in confident mood as he dissolved his current Cabinet, but his victory in last month’s elections has been marred by allegations of ballot rigging. The Council of Ulema inKanoState, mainly-Muslim northern Nigeria’s populous region, joined the chorus of protests, calling for the April 19 presidential vote to be annulled and rerun across much of the country. “Based on the details of malpractices ... the elections should be rerun in areas where massive fraud took place and in the areas where elections did not take place at all,” said council chairman Umar Ibrahim Kabo.
Taken From:
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=26498Tashkent,
A delegation from the Kuwaiti International Islamic Charity Commission distributed material aid to more than 200 orphaned Uzbek children, during a ceremony to commemorate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) here. The Commission is also taking care of 450 other orphans inUzbekistan.
Taken From:
http://www.islamicnews.org/english/en_daily.html