Sudais Chosen Islamic Personality of the Year. 
        
      DUBAI, 21 October 2005 - The Imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, has been chosen the Dubai International Holy Qur'an Award's (DIHQA) 9th Islamic Personality of the year 2005.

      Dr. Saeed Hareb, the vice chairman of the DIHQA Organizing Committee, made the announcement on Wednesday. "Dr. Al-Sudais has been selected for his devotion to the Qur'an and Islam," he said.

      "His remarkable and ear-catching intonation of the Qur'an during the Haj season and during the Taraweeh in the holy mosque has made him very famous and beloved among the Muslim community," said Dr. Hareb. 

      Dr. Al-Sudais reflects a bright picture of Islam and Muslims, he said. "He became a recognized personality among the Muslim community through his Qur'an recitation and working as a specialized professor in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence)," said Dr. Hareb. Al-Sudais will be honored during the DIHQA's closing ceremony on Ramadan 20 (Oct. 23). 

      DIHQA's Organizing Committee chooses the Islamic personality of the year. The selection is carried out through nomination by states, universities and specialized institutions.

      Toward the end of the press conference Dr. Hareb said, "Dr. Al Sudais was selected during the normal proceedings of DIHQA, however, he was too polite to accept it. 

      "First, he told us that he couldn't accept the award because there are other scholars who deserve it more than he does. He still considers himself a student. This was the reason for the late announcement of the award," he said.



            Dawa Launches New Campaign.
           
              
            JEDDAH, 21 October 2005 - "Let Muslims add one" is the slogan of a new Dawa campaign launched here yesterday. "The campaign is aimed at educating non-Muslims about Islam and what it offers," Dr. Khaled Bahadik, a senior Dawa official, told a press conference at the Jeddah Hilton on Wednesday night.

            The Dawa organization has a dedicated phone number (70001112), which can be called for offering financial contribution to the campaign. "The fund collected is to be used on advertising to make sure the message reaches as many people as possible," he added.

            According to him, 400 non-Muslim expatriates reverted to Islam last year. Many more have come into the fold of Islam this year, among them are Americans, Filipinos and Indians. Forty-year-old Abdul Karim Natividad, formerly a Filipino Christian, Ricardo Natividad Jr., was introduced to the meeting as a new convert. "You've accepted Allah as the only God. Allah will open all the doors for you. I wish you all the best," Dr. Bahadik told Natividad.

            "I've been in the Kingdom for 11 years, the first five years in Riyadh. I'm with the Sleep High factory at the Jeddah Industrial City for the last six years. I'm impressed by Islam and so decided to embrace it," Natividad said.

            Asked whether his family would accept the change of religion, Natividad said: "I'll have to speak to them and convince them that I've chosen the right path." He said his wife and two children - son and daughter - lived back home in Bangan La Union in northern Philippines.

            Two executives of the Coop. Call & Guidance Office, based at the Jeddah Industrial City, gave the details of various projects and activities initiated over the years. "Our initiatives have further strengthened the ongoing Dawa work and resulted in several non-Muslims embracing Islam," one of them said.



                  Muslim Ambassadors to Denmark Protest Cartoons About Prophet
                  Agence France Presse 
                    
                  COPENHAGEN, 21 October 2005 - The ambassadors of Muslim countries to Denmark have protested against 12 newspaper caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in a letter to Denmark's prime minister, his office said yesterday.

                  An Islamic group also threatened to carry out attacks in the Scandinavian country over the affair, media reported.

                  The 12 drawings by two cartoonists, which appeared in Denmark's largest circulation daily Jyllands-Posten on Sept. 30, have drawn criticism from across the Muslim community in Denmark, with religious leaders insisting they are an insult to the Prophet and calling for an official apology.

                  In a letter to Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, diplomats from Arab countries and Pakistan, Iran, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Indonesia said they were offended by the caricatures and demanded an official apology from the newspaper, the prime minister's office said.

                  They requested a meeting with Rasmussen, who is also in charge of media affairs, to express their concern about what they perceive as anti-Muslim and anti-Islam campaigns in the press and certain far-right political circles.

                  Last week, as many as 5,000 Muslims demonstrated in Copenhagen against the paper and the drawings, which depicted Mohammed in different settings. 

                  In one of the drawings, he appeared with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.

                  Meanwhile, an Islamic group calling itself Glory Brigades in Northern Europe issued threats against Jyllands-Posten and Denmark on the website www.internet-haganah.us, Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported in its online edition.

                  The news agency AFP was unable to find the link and it was unclear whether it was later removed from the site, but Berlingske Tidende said in its report that it showed Copenhagen images with the caption: "The Mujahedeen have numerous targets in Denmark. Very soon you will regret this."

                  The editors of Jyllands-Posten meanwhile stood by their cartoons and rejected the diplomats' demand for an apology in the name of freedom of expression.

                  "We live in a democracy where satire and caricature are generally accepted, and religion should not set limits on that," chief editor Carsten Juste said.

                  Islam is the second religion in Denmark after the Evangelical-Lutheran state church, with some 180,000 members or three percent of the population.

                  Last week, a 17-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of issuing death threats to the two cartoonists. 

                 
                    

           

     

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