Pakistani Islamic party leaders leave for goodwill visit to India

Delegation from Pakistan's radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Islamic party crossed into India at the Wagah border on Tuesday expressing the hope that their weeklong visit would improve understanding between the two countries. JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, party vice president Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and fellow parliamentarians Gul Naseeb and Qazi Hameedullah are making the rare visit at the invitation of India's Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind Muslim party.

"It is a goodwill trip and will help promote understanding and realization that all issues dividing the two countries should be settled through a purposeful dialogue," delegation leader Fazlur Rehman told reporters at Wagah. Nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India are bitter enemies and have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over the northern Himalayan state ofKashmir, which is split between the two and claimed by both in full.

Taken From: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5967_308415,001600060001.htm

AirAsia offers Islamic bonds to fund aircraft

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP)

Malaysia's no-frills airline AirAsia expects to offer its first Islamic bond issue later this year to help finance the purchase and lease of 11 Boeing 737-300 aircraft, officials said Tuesday.

"The issuing of Islamic bonds is progressing well. We are happy with the progress. The debt market is showing lots of confidence in AirAsia," its chief executive Tony Fernandes told reporters.

The company aims to offer 160 million ringgit (42 million dollars) in 7-year Islamic bonds by September or October. An Islamic bond is a debt instrument that adheres to Syariah principles which prohibit the payment of interest.

Earlier, Fernandes launched the company's multi-lingual web site which allows customers to book on-line.

Over 45 per cent of AirAsia's total sales are generated the Internet. In the last 14 months since AirAsia introduced online booking, it has recorded sales of over 60 million ringgit through the Internet alone.

Taken From: http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/wed/jul16w9.htm

Swaziland to have an Islamic Center and school

Mbabane,

The foundation stone for an Islamic Center and a school has been laid in the Kingdom of Swaziland, southern Africa, and the ceremony was attended by senior government officials, among many others. The center will, apart from the secondary school, have a training center, a social hall, teachers’ quarters, an orphanage, and other amenities and facilities.

In Gambia, a main mosque would soon be built in the capital, plus an Islamic Center. This project is being funded by the Government of Libya, through the Libya-based World Islamic Propagation Organization (WIPO). WIPO recently initiated a medical caravan to the flood affected area ofCambodia, while in Thailand it held an initiation course for 120 new Muslims, including studies in the Holy Qur’an.

Meanwhile, WIPO has also dispatched a relief medical caravan to northern Mozambique, where it not only distributed relief aid materials and medicines, while the sick, who number about 3,000 were treated by its team of Libyan doctors who accompanied the caravan.

Taken From: http://www.islamicnews.org/english/en_daily.html