GE unit nears Islamic bond sale – bankers | 投资资讯 | 公司新闻 | reuters.com.cn

2009年 11月 19日 星期四 20:23 BJT

保存为书签 | 打印 | 阅读全文
[-] 文字大小 [+]
全球市场新闻
〔东南亚股市〕多数收高,泰国股市反弹且新加坡股市续涨
伦敦金1030定盘价为每盎司1,218.25美元,上日纽约收盘为1,215.90美元
〔欧元债市〕德债期货扩大跌幅,短暂触及123.00下方的一周新低
更多市场新闻

* General Electric unit to sell 5-yr benchmark bond

* Could raise as much as $1 bln

* U.S. conglomerate looking to diversify investor base

By Rachna Uppal

DUBAI, Nov 19 (Reuters) – A unit of General Electric (GE.N: 行情) is expected to close the order books on Thursday on a 5-year fixed-rate dollar denominated sukuk, or Islamic bond, as the U.S. conglomerate looks to diversify its investor base, bankers said.

Unofficial price guidance for General Electric Capital Corp (GECC)’s (GEA.N: 行情) Reg S sukuk is between 165 basis points (bps) and 175 bps over U.S. Treasuries, and the issue could be worth as much as $1 billion, depending on demand, bankers close to the transaction said.

The global Islamic bond market has been lying idle for much of 2009, after issuance was hit last year by the global credit crunch and a debate over the compliance of some of its structures with Islamic law.

Several sovereigns, including Gulf Arab state Bahrain and Indonesia, have issued sukuk in recent months.

Issuance fell 56 percent to $14.9 billion in 2008, according to Standard & Poor’s, but interest for high-rated emerging market debt has seen a flurry of conventional and Islamic bond issues in the third quarter of the year.

Bankers say GE Capital, the financial services arm of General Electric, aims to diversify its investor base to incorporate Islamic investors.

“GE is one of the most prolific issuers in the U.S. and all they are trying to do is tap a different investor base,” said one banker, who declined to be identified as the transaction is ongoing.

“Its always good to have a new market, and a diversified investor base,” another banker said.

GE Capital’s sukuk will be issued through GE Capital Sukuk Ltd, a subsidiary of GE Capital, in an Ijara structure.

Ijara — Arabic for leasing — incorporates an agreement in which banks lease an asset to a client for a specific time at a specific price. At the end of the leasing period, the client may or may not own the asset.

A series of roadshows taking in Asia and the Middle East were held recently to gauge demand from investors for the GE Capital bond.

Goldman Sachs, Citi, Kuwait’s Liquidity House – a subsidiary of Islamic lender Kuwait Finance House – and National Bank of Abu Dhabi are joint bookrunners for the sukuk issue.

Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam is joint lead manager, according to a banker.

Abu Dhabi government-owned investment company Mubadala said on November 9 its commercial finance joint venture with General Electric (GE.N: 行情) was aiming for at least $4 billion in business next year. [ID:nL9432986]

(Additional reporting by Rania el Gamal and Stanley Carvalho; Editing by John Irish, John Stonestreet)

There are only four minarets in Switzerland

Swiss voters have supported a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets, official results show.

More than 57% of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons – or provinces – voted in favour of the ban.

The proposal had been put forward by the Swiss People’s Party, (SVP), the largest party in parliament, which says minarets are a sign of Islamisation.

The government opposed the ban, saying it would harm Switzerland’s image, particularly in the Muslim world.

But Martin Baltisser, the SVP’s general secretary, told the BBC: “This was a vote against minarets as symbols of Islamic power.”

The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes, in Bern, says the surprise result is very bad news for the Swiss government which fears unrest among the Muslim community.

Our correspondent says voters worried about rising immigration – and with it the rise of Islam – have ignored the government’s advice.

In a statement, the government said it accepted the decision.

It said: “The Federal Council (government) respects this decision. Consequently the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted.”

This will cause major problems because during this campaign mosques were attacked, which we never experienced in 40 years in Switzerland Tamir Hadjipolu Zurich’s Association of Muslim Organisations Minaret vote: Your views Result “reflects unease with Islam”

Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said: “Concerns [about Islamic fundamentalism] have to be taken seriously.

“However, a ban on the construction of new minarets is not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies.”

She sought to reassure Swiss Muslims, saying the decision was “not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture”.

Switzerland is home to some 400,000 Muslims and has just four minarets.

After Christianity, Islam is the most widespread religion in Switzerland, but it remains relatively hidden.

There are unofficial Muslim prayer rooms, and planning applications for new minarets are almost always refused.

Supporters of a ban claimed that allowing minarets would represent the growth of an ideology and a legal system – Sharia law – which are incompatible with Swiss democracy.

But others say the referendum campaign incited hatred. On Thursday the Geneva mosque was vandalised for the third time during the campaign, according to local media.

Amnesty International said the vote violated freedom of religion and would probably be overturned by the Swiss supreme court or the European Court of Human Rights.

‘Political symbol’

The president of Zurich’s Association of Muslim Organisations, Tamir Hadjipolu, told the BBC: “This will cause major problems because during this campaign mosques were attacked, which we never experienced in 40 years in Switzerland.

“Islamaphobia has increased intensively.”

And there was dismay among Switzerland’s Muslims upon hearing the result.

It’s a message that you are not welcome here as true citizens of this society Elham Manea, co-founder of the Forum for a Progressive Islam

Farhad Afshar, president of the Coordination of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland, said: “The most painful thing for us is not the ban on minarets but the symbol sent by this vote.

“Muslims do not feel accepted as a religious community.”

Elham Manea, co-founder of the Forum for a Progressive Islam, added: “My fear is that the younger generation will feel unwelcome.

“It’s a message that you are not welcome here as true citizens of this society.”

Sunday’s referendum was held after the SVP collected 100,000 signatures from voters within 18 months calling for a vote.

In recent years countries across Europe have been debating how best to integrate Muslim populations.

France focused on the headscarf, while in Germany there was controversy over plans to build one of Europe’s largest mosques.

The family of a 7th-grade Muslim student says she was forbidden to pray inside Lewiston Middle School by school officials. Ismail Warsame says his niece had been praying on her free time ever since school started in September. But he said school administrators told her last week that praying wasn’t allowed in school, and that her mother would have to take her outside the building to pray. Warsame says the family contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington D.C., and that his niece was briefly allowed to pray after the organization contacted the school…but that a teacher once again kept her from praying the next day.

Superintendent Leon Levesque says the incident is the result of a miscommunication. According to the 2003 guidelines set by the No Child Left Behind Act, no student can be forbidden from praying at school during non-instructional time, as long as it doesn’t disrupt others. The law states that school officials can’t encourage or discourage prayer, or participate in such activities. Levesque says no Lewiston student has even been kept from praying on school property. He says this student had requested that a room be made available for praying. Levesque says Lewiston schools strive to be neutral and don’t provide prayer rooms so as not to appear to promote religious practices.

Warsame says his niece never requested a prayer room, and that the issue only arose when school officials told her she couldn’t pray on campus because the school lacked a prayer room. Warsame says he also believes the incident is the result of a misunderstanding, and wouldn’t mind meeting with school officials to clarify any misconceptions about Muslim prayer.

Catherine Parrotta,

Posted: Wednesday, November 25 2009, 01:54 PM EST

A Faizur Rahman
First Published : 11 Nov 2009 11:41:00 PM IST
Last Updated : 11 Nov 2009 02:05:10 PM IST

In his article How did it turn unsafe? (TNIE, November 9) S Gurumurthy wants to know “what is so special about Islamic monotheism that singing Vande Mataram minimises the importance of only the Islamic God and not the gods of other monotheistic faiths?” He wonders why Muslims should feel threatened when Christians and Sikhs are not opposed to the song.

Before we proceed further, a glance at the recent history of this controversy would be in order. It started in 2006 when the then HRD minister Arjun Singh called for the singing of Vande Mataram in schools across India on September 7 that year to mark its centenary. Although he later clarified that singing would be voluntary, the BJP went ahead and issued its own fatwa asking all the states ruled by it to make the singing of the song compulsory in all schools, including madrasas.

It was as a legitimate reaction to this extra-constitutional attitude that Deoband issued a fatwa against singing the national song, not because Islamic monotheism became suddenly ‘unsafe’ from Vande Mataram. A few days ago RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in an interview said all Indians must sing this song. Gurumurthy’s feigned ignorance of the circumstances that led to the Deoband fatwa stands exposed.

He is also wrong in his assertion that the Shiromoni Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in 2007 ordered Vande Mataram sung in its schools. Indeed, the SGPC asked its schools not to sing the song as it went against their religion. SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar, quoted by Gurumurthy, said; “Vande Mataram will not be sung in SGPC-run schools. It’s a conspiracy to extend communalism throughout the nation.”

What Makkar later expressed was only his inability to prevent Sikhs from singing the song. There seems to be no record of his praising the song as claimed by Gurumurthy.

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Harvindar Singh Sarna said on September 6, 2006; “Vande Mataram would not be sung in the DSGMC-run educational institutions tomorrow on its first centenary as it is against the tenets, principles and philosophy of Sikhism.” He also said that it had been rejected by veteran Akali leaders Baba Kharak Singh and Master Tara Singh during the freedom struggle.

On September 8, 2008, the Punjab Newsline reported that Sikh and Christian institutions boycotted the singing of Vande Mataram in Punjab.

In quoting Fr Cyprian Kullu, Gurumurthy reproduced only a part of his statement. In the other part Kullu censured the Hindu extremists saying, “It is ironic that Muslim clerics issued fatwas that singing the song would be an act of desecration. But equally ridiculous is the stand of some Hindu organisations describing as anti-national those who refuse to sing the song. This is a frivolous thing. India is a democratic country and democracy reveres individual freedoms.”

Also, Gurumurthy omitted mentioning the views of the author of our National Anthem, Rabindranath Tagore. In a letter to Subhash Chandra Bose in 1937, he wrote: “…. no Mussulman (Muslim), Christians and Arya Samajis can be expected patriotically to worship the ten-handed deity as ‘Swadesh’ (the nation)…The novel Anandamath is a work of literature, and so the song is appropriate in it. But Parliament is a place of union for all religious groups, and there the song cannot be appropriate. When Bengali Mussulmans show signs of stubborn fanaticism, we regard these as intolerable. When we too copy them and make unreasonable demands, it will be self-defeating.” (Letter 314, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, edited by K Datta and A Robinson, Cambridge University Press)

Therefore, it is not the question of the ‘Islamic God’ being ‘minimised’ by singing Vande Mataram. The Deoband fatwa should be seen as a kind of democratic protest, a refusal by the patriotic Muslim minority of India to be browbeaten by the Hindutva brigade (which does not enjoy the support of the majority of the Hindus) into surrendering their religious freedom. The Muslim position is more legal than theological. They have neither ridiculed Vande Mataram nor condemned it. They only want Hindus to respect their religious sentiments. Had Gurumurthy waited a day before publishing his article he would have had the benefit of the counsel of one of our top legal brains, Soli Sorabjee. In his Soliloquies ‘Contaminated mindset is genesis of bombers’ (TNIE, November 9), Sorabjee writes, “The legal position is that Muslims who because of their conscientious religious belief refuse to sing Vande Mataram cannot be forced to do so nor can they be penalised for their abstention. What is the rationale of the Supreme Court judgment? In the words of celebrated Justice Chinnappa Reddy: “Our tradition teaches tolerance; our philosophy preaches tolerance; our constitution practises tolerance; let us not dilute it”.”

It has become a sort of tradition for Gurumurthy to malign Islam at the slightest provocation. Obviously he is not aware that Swami Vivekananda, the greatest proponent of Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism) after Adi Sankara, tried to bring about reconciliation between Hinduism and Islamic monotheism which coincides with the non-dualism of Advaita.

On June 10, 1898, in a letter written from Almora to his friend Mohammed Sarfaraz Hussain Vivekananda proclaimed; “I am firmly persuaded that without the help of practical Islam, theories of Vedantism, however fine and wonderful they may be, are entirely valueless to the vast mass of mankind”… “For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism and Islam — Vedanta brain and Islam body — is the only hope. I see in my mind’s eye the future perfect India rising out of this chaos and strife, glorious and invincible, with Vedanta brain and Islam body.” (Letters of Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, page 379-380). Is Gurumurthy listening?

By Alexandra Zayas and Demorris A. Lee, Times Staff Writers
In Print: Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Story Tools Email Article Contact the editor Print this story Comment on this story $(document).ready(function() { $(‘#tpc-email-story-holder’).html(”).append( $(‘‘).attr(‘href’,’#’).html(‘Email Article’).bind(‘click’, function() { tpc.emailArticle(); }) ) }); Social Bookmarking yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = “Tampa police: Marine reservist attacked Greek priest he mistook for terrorist”; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = “A Marine reservist says he thought he captured a terrorist.<br /><br /> . TAMPA — Marine reservist Jasen Bruce was getting clothes out of the trunk of his car Monday evening when a bearded man in a robe approached him.”; yahooBuzzArticleCategory = “”; yahooBuzzArticleType = “text”; yahooBuzzArticleId = window.location.href; Buzz up! ShareThis

<!– doubleclickAd('medrect'); // .slideshow-nav a { font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; color: #69f; } .previous-anchor { float: left; } .next-anchor { float: right; } Previous Photo Next Photo Jasen Bruce $(document).ready(function() { var totalImagesAdded = 0; $.getJSON(‘/site/images/json/1050707/d/’, function(data) { $.each(data.result, function(i, image) { if (i >= 0) { $(‘‘).attr(‘border’, ‘1’).attr(‘width’, image.width).attr(‘height’, image.height).attr(‘src’, image.url).attr(‘alt’, image.caption).attr(‘title’, image.altText).appendTo(‘#article-slideshow-1050707’); totalImagesAdded++; } }); if (totalImagesAdded >= 2) { $(‘#article-slideshow-1050707’).cycle({ fx: ‘fade’, speed: 500, next: ‘#slideshow-next-1050707’, prev: ‘#slideshow-prev-105070 7’, timeout: 0, after: ssOnAfter_1050707 }); $(‘#slideshow-nav-1050707’).show(); } else { // one image, so just statically fill in the credit and caption var _i = $(‘#article-slideshow-1050707’).find(‘img:first’); $(‘#slideshow-caption-1050707’).html(_i.attr(‘alt’)); if (_i.attr(‘title’) != ”) $(‘#slideshow-photog-1050707’).html(‘[‘ + _i.attr(‘title’) + ‘]’); } }); }); function ssOnAfter_1050707() { $(‘#article-slideshow-1050707’).css(‘height’, this.height); $(‘#slideshow-photog-1050707’).html( (this.title !== undefined && this.title != ”) ? ‘[‘ + this.title + ‘]’ : ” ).fadeIn(); $(‘#slideshow-caption-1050707’).html(this.alt).fadeIn(); } Related Links See Bruce’s mugshot Let’s Talk: Readers react to attack on priest .stepcarousel { position: relative; /*leave this value alone*/ border: 5px solid white; overflow: hidden; /*leave this value alone*/ width: 270px; /*Width of Carousel Viewer itself*/ height: 120px; /*Height should enough to fit largest content’s height*/ } .stepcarousel .belt { position: absolute; /*leave this value alone*/ left: 0; top: 0; } .stepcarousel .panel { float: left; /*leave this value alone*/ overflow: hidden; /*clip content that go outside dimensions of holding panel DIV*/ margin: 5px; /*margin around each panel*/ width: 100px; /*Width of each panel holding each content. If removed, widths should be individually defined on each content DIV then. */ } Featured Raw Video: Teen Fatally Stabbed at Fla. School Plant moves on to region final First Person: Witness to Muhammad Execution Raw Video: Woman Fell in Front of Oncoming Train In Memoriam: 13 Fallen at Ft. Hood Woman extricated from truck wreck Kid Hero: 9-year-old Stops Carjacking Ex-Miss Calif. Admits Making Solo Sex Tape Nature Coast advances after winning tiebreaker Strollers Recalled for Fingertip Amputations Iran Accuse s 3 Detained Americans of Espionage Alleged Fort Hood Shooter Awake and Talking Police seek attempted robbery suspect Germany Marks 20 Years Since Berlin Wall’s Fall House Passes Health Care Bill Friday Night Rewind 2009 – Week 10 Fort Hood Victims’ Families Share Their Stories Officials: Orlando Gunman Apprehended First Person: Inside ‘Chaotic’ ER After Shooting DNA Sets Fla. Man After 3 Decades in Prison Army: 13 Dead, 30 Hurt in Attack at Fort Hood Girardi Helps Driver Hours After Series Win AP Source: Fort Hood Suspect Is Army Major Police: 7-month-old Was in a Box for 12 Hours Yankees Win 27th World Series Championship SC Man Gets 3 Years in Prison for Sex With Horse Inmate attacks deputy, other inmates rush to stop the choking Report Blasts State Officials in Dugard Case FBI: Nun Likely Killed in Violent Struggle Ebay Auction of DWI Chair Pulled, Reposted Coroner: at Least 11 Victims at Cleveland Home Helping to remember Amelia Earhart LA Church Putting Pets in Pews Clearwater gets a new watchdog Friday Night Rewind 2009 – Week 9 – Halloween edition Another Foot Found Off Canada’s Pacific Coast ‘Sex for Tix’ Woman Says She Didn’t Do It Florida Man Creates Giant Rubber Band Ball Deputy suspended after suspect nearly escapes Pedestrian killed on Gulf to Bay Blvd. in Clearwater Attorney: My Client Was Too Fat to Kill Driver killed in beaches shootout Fla. Teen Accused of Fatally Stabbing Brother 3 Arrested in Alleged Gang Rape of Calif. Girl Saving the eye of a tiger Friday Night Rewind 2009 – Week 8 Raising chickens in the city Girl’s eviction case gains notoriety Raising chickens in the city Friday Night Rewind 2009 – Week 7 Friday Night Rewind – week 7 early edition City Council disrupted by fight Friday Night Rewind 2009 – Week 6 Clearwater native, astronaut talks from space station Armed robbery suspects use stolen card Dead whale pulled ashore at Fort De Soto Park Teenager killed in boat crash near Albert Whitted Airport Friday Night Rewind – Week 5 Teen drivers learn perils of distractions Young mother dies of swine flu complications Clearwater woman bitten but escapes alligator Friday Night Rewind 2009 – Week 4 The Golden Hour – The race to save Andrew Hall John Graziano is released from hospital 2 years after crash Tampa Breeze holds lingerie football scrimmage Florida panther strolls down the boardwalk Tampa Breeze hosts lingerie football tryouts Tragedy at sea $(document).ready(function() { tpcv.slider(‘2652468001’); });

TAMPA — Marine reservist Jasen Bruce was getting clothes out of the trunk of his car Monday evening when a bearded man in a robe approached him.

That man, a Greek Orthodox priest named Father Alexios Marakis, speaks little English and was lost, police said. He wanted directions.

What the priest got instead, police say, was a tire iron to the head. Then he was chased for three blocks and pinned to the ground — as the Marine kept a 911 operator on the phone, saying he had captured a terrorist.

Police say Bruce offered several reasons to explain his actions:

The man tried to rob him.

The man grabbed Bruce’s crotch and made an overt sexual advance in perfect English.

The man yelled “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” the same words some witnesses said the Fort Hood shooting suspect uttered last week.

“That’s what they tell you right before they blow you up,” police say Bruce told them.

Bruce ended up in jail, accused of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He was released Tuesday on $7,500 bail. Marakis ended up at the hospital with stitches. He told the police he didn’t want to press charges, espousing biblical forgiveness.

But Tuesday, Bruce wasn’t saying sorry.

• • •

The two men are a year apart in age, and a world apart in life experiences.

Father Michael Eaccarino of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs says Marakis, 29, entered a Greek monastery as a teenager and became a priest nine years ago. He is studying theology at Holy Cross, a Greek Orthodox school in Massachusetts, and traveled to Tarpon Springs two months ago to work on his master’s thesis. He has taken a vow of celibacy.

Eaccarino says the visiting priest got lost Monday after ministering to the elderly in a nursing home.

Jasen Bruce, 28, enlisted as a reserve Marine as a teenager, was discharged honorably when he finished his contract, and enlisted again this March. He has never been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, a Marine Corps spokesman said. He got married last month in full dress uniform.

Bruce is a sales manager for APS Pharmacy in Palm Harbor. His blog entries tout the benefits of increasing testosterone and human growth hormones. He was charged with misdemeanor battery in 2007 for hopping over the bed of a tow truck and shoving its driver. He pleaded no contest.

Online photo galleries depict him flexing big muscles wearing little clothing.

An exterior surveillance video of Tuesday’s chase captured the two men in motion, said Tampa Police Department spokeswoman Laura McElroy:

“You see a very short, small man running, and an enormous, large muscular man chasing after him.”

This is what police say happened at 6:35 p.m. Monday:

The priest’s GPS gave him the wrong directions, leading him off Interstate 275 and into downtown Tampa. He followed a line of cars into a garage at the Seaport Channelside condominium to ask for help.

He found Bruce, whose back was turned, bending over the trunk of his car, and he tapped his shoulder before saying, in broken English, “please” and “help.”

That’s when Bruce reached for the tire iron. Police say that by the end of the chase, he had hit the priest four times.

Hours after his release from Orient Road Jail on Tuesday, Bruce stood silently as his attorney, Jeff Brown, told his version:

The bearded man wearing a robe and sandals was clearly trespassing in the garage. In a sudden move, the stranger made a verbal sexual advance and grabbed Bruce’s genitals. The Marine defended himself. And immediately, he called 911 as he chased him.

Brown said the police initially called the Marine a “hero” and said the priest was “mentally ill.”

He called the police’s account “one-sided” and said the department should investigate a sergeant he said made derogatory comments about the Marine’s military background.

Police said that sergeant is, himself, a veteran. They say that the priest was disoriented when they found him at the corner of Madison and Meridian avenues, but a translator at Tampa General Hospital helped him communicate. And that the GPS corroborates the priest’s story.

When police arrived at Bruce’s apartment at 1:30 a.m., before they had mentioned charges, he had already called an attorney.

Television news stations showed the priest’s photo on Tuesday a
nd mentioned what the Marine said he did. If the priest had watched, he wouldn’t have understood it.

He’d spent the day in great spirits, his fellow priest said. His main worry was that he inconvenienced the others who had to care for him. Then, a man named Jerry Theophilopoulos got in touch with him. He’s a lawyer, speaks Greek and served as a former board member of the church. The lawyer said he told the priest what the Marine said. Marakis was stunned. His eyes grew wide. He said it was a lie.

Times researcher John Martin and staff writer Jamal Thalji contributed to this report.

[Last modified: Nov 11, 2009 11:22 AM]

Monday, November 02, 2009

• Print
• ShareThis

 AP

Oct. 30: Dr. Hena Zaki applied for a job at a North Texas medical clinic and says officials told her she couldn’t wear her traditional headscarf.

DALLAS  —  A suburban Dallas medical clinic has apologized to a Muslim doctor for telling her during a job interview that she would not be allowed to wear her headscarf while at work.

Dr. Hena Zaki of Plano said Friday that she was shocked when officials at CareNow, which operates 22 clinics in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, told her in person and later by e-mail that a no-hat policy extended to her hijab.

Zaki had been on a tour of a CareNow clinic in Allen, Texas, two weeks ago when she said the regional medical director told her he didn’t want her to be surprised about the policy during orientation.

“He interrupted the interview and said he didn’t want me to take this the wrong way,” Zaki said. “Like an FYI.”

Zaki demanded an apology and a change in CareNow’s policies to accommodate expressions of religious belief — “whether it be a turban or facial hair.”

On Friday, CareNow President Tim Miller told the Associated Press: “I would apologize for any misunderstanding, definitely … but I don’t really feel like there is anything that we did that is wrong and our policy is wrong.”

The next day, as reported by MyFoxDallas/Fort Worth, Miller wrote in a statement:

“We apologize to Dr. Zaki for the misunderstanding. We will clarify our policy, and will continue our ongoing sensitivity training.”

“Care Now has made religious accommodations for employees in the past,” he said, adding that the company is interested in “sitting down with Dr. Zaki and discussing a job.”

CareNow says it does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin when making employment decisions. The Civil Rights Act requires companies to make accommodations for employees’ religious beliefs.

Zaki, who’s searching for her first job after recently finishing her residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, has worn her headscarf since age 14 and said other places she’s worked have not had a problem with it.

“It’s not a hat,” she said. “It’s not sports memorabilia.”

Click here for more from MyFoxDallas/Fort Worth.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Wednesday,28 October 2009, 15:14 hrs

Comment(275)

Print

Forward

New Delhi: A retired Indian engineer, Chewang Norphel, 76, has built 12 new glaciers already and is racing to create five more before he dies, and by then he hopes to train enough new ‘icemen’ to continue the work he is doing to save the world’s ‘third icecap’ from being transformed into rivers, reports Telegraph.

His race against time is shared by Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, who called on the region’s Himalayan nations, including China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, to constitute a united front to tackle glacial melting.

The Himalayan glaciers, including Kashmir’s Siachen glacier, feed the region’s most important rivers, as they irrigate farm lands in Tibet, Nepal and Bangladesh and throughout the Indian subcontinent. The acceleration in glacial melting has been blamed as the reason for the increase in floods that have destroyed homes and crops.

But Chewang Norphel, the “Iceman of Ladakh”, believes that he has an answer.

By diverting melt water through a network of pipes into artificial lakes in the shaded side of mountain valleys, Norphel states that he has created new glaciers.

A dam or embankment is built to keep the water in, which freezes at night and remains frozen in the absence of direct sunlight. This water remains frozen until March, when the start of summer melts the new glacier and releases the water into the rivers downside.

His glaciers have been able to each store up to one million cubic feet of ice, which in turn can irrigate 200 hectares of farm land. This can make the difference between crop failure and a bumper crop of more than 1,000 tons of wheat for the farmers.

Norphel says that he has seen the effects of global warming on farmland as snows have become thinner on the ground and ice rivers have melted away.

His work has now been recognized by the Indian government, which has given him 16,000 pounds to build five new glaciers. But time is his enemy, he told The Hindustan Times. “I’m planning to train villagers with instruction CDs that I have made, so that I can pass on the knowledge before I die,” he said.

The 87-year-old Raja Valiyathampuran of  Kodungallur in Central Kerala is a descendant of King Cheraman Perumal, the first Indian to embrace Islam in the early 7th century. Talking to him is like talking with history. In the following interview taken by A U Asif  in Ernakulam, he dwells in detail upon his great early ancestor and the oldest mosque (above) of the sub-continent. He also asks North Indians to come to Kerala and see how people of different religions are living here for centuries in an atmosphere of harmony, fraternity and peace.

How do you take your great great grandfather Cheraman Perumal?

Cheraman Perumal was not only a king and my ancestor, but the first Indian to come into the fold of Islam. He was actually the person who gifted Islam and the first ever mosque to the Indian sub-continent. This happened much before the advents of Muhammad bin Qasim and Mahmood Ghaznavi. This shows that Islam didn’t come to India with the sword. 

Is it a fact?

As is well known in Kerala, on a moon-lit night the king while walking on the rooftop of his palace along with the queen saw the moon suddenly splitting into two halves. Later he came to know through the Arab traders that that a prophet called Muhammad had wrought a miracle on that fateful night and sundered the moon before a crowd of dazed spectators. Impressed by this new messenger of God in Arabia, the king set out for the holy land after dividing his kingdom and assigning various territories to local chieftains to ensure smooth governance. In Arabia he met the Prophet and embraced Islam in the presence of Abu Bakr Siddique, who later became the first caliph. Cheraman, who took a Muslim name, Tajuddin, died on his way back to India and was buried on the shore of the Arabian Sea at Salala in the Sultanate of Oman. It is said that he had earlier written letters to the local rulers of Malabar and sent it through his ministers along with Malik bin Dinar, a companion of the Prophet. In the letters he had asked them to “receive the bearers of the letters and treat them well and help them to construct mosques at Kodungallur and elsewhere”. The rulers of Kerala honoured the letters and permitted Malik Bin Dinar and his fellow Arab traders to build mosques in Kerala. The mosque built in the early 7th century at Kodungallur, known as Cheraman Malik Masjid, still exists with its original structure and is said to be the oldest mosque in the sub-continent. It is named after both Cheraman Perumal and Malik bin Dinar. 

Is the mosque intact with its original structure?

Yes, the original structure, including the sanctum sanctorum, remains intact. However, there have been a few extensions in the past. Its front portion is new while the back portion with its sanctum sanctorum, mehrab, mimbar  (pulpit), wooden work on the roof of mimbar  and traditional lamp as well as the ancient ceremonial pond, is still untouched.     

Anything more about Malik bin Dinar?

After the construction of the mosque at Kodungallur, Malik bin Dinar moved towards Mangalore and died at Kasaragod, now in Karnataka, where rests in peace. Interestingly, Cheraman Perumal and Malik bin Dinar are buried on two sides of the Arabian Sea, one at Salala in the Sultanate of Oman and the other at Kasaragod in India. In other words, their graves are interlinked by the waters of the sea. There exist 14 mosques of the same pattern and design from Kodungallur to Mangalore. 

How do you see all this?

We see all this with pride. There is no question of any ill-feeling about Cheraman Perumal. We have high regard for him. He was our patriarch. He embraced Islam but could not come back from Arabia as he fell ill and died on way. I hail from his lineage and have faith in Hinduism. 

How do the general people, particularly Hindus consider Cheraman and his gift in form of the first ever mosque in the Indian sub-continent? 

People belonging to different religions, including Hindus, hold him in high esteem and the mosque built as per his wish as a historical monument. The historic mosque has been visited by numerous dignitaries over the centuries and decades.

President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam was recently here. He was given a warm reception in the mosque. I was also among those present on the occasion.

Unlike north India, there is no communal strife over places of worship in South India?

No, not at all. In this part of land exist India’s oldest places of worship. The first synagogue, the first church, the first mosque and the ancient Bhagwathi and Mahadeva temples are located in this region. We have maintained a record of exemplary communal harmony here. I often wonder about the sudden eruption of controversy over places of worship. Unlike north, people of all faiths have high regard for all places of worship. My suggestion is: People in the north should come to Kerala and see and learn how we belonging to different religions live here for centuries without any communal hatred, animosity and strife. g

[The interviewer is a Delhi-based senior journalist. He can be contacted at au_asif@yahoo.co.in]