What are the Muslims response over Swiss votes banning the construction of minarets in the country? Here’s what a Swiss imam,  Youssef Ibram, imam at the Geneva mosque, has to say as he told AFP:
The Muslim world must respect, without accepting the decision. But it must respect the Swiss decision. Otherwise, we would be the first victims.
I think his response is very calm and elegant. Giving example to Muslims outside Switzerland how they should react. If you behave as low as others behave to you, you’re equal or even lower than them. Set a higher moral standard for yourself. Only then, you’ll get respect from others. If not, you have respected your own self.

The doomsday of Dubai’s economy is yet to come. The market is ok. It’s just a minor problem, says Bloomberg.
Dubai World said it began “constructive” talks with banks to restructure $26 billion of debt, including liabilities owed by units Nakheel World and Limitless World.

Debt from subsidiaries such as Infinity World Holding, Istithmar World and Ports & Free Zone World will be excluded from the negotiations because those companies “are on a stable financial footing,” Dubai World, one of the emirate’s three main state-related holding companies, said in a statement.

The company is seeking to delay payments on less than half its $59 billion of debt, damping concern that its potential default may set back the global financial system’s recovery from the credit crisis that sank the world economy into recession. Stocks erased losses in the U.S. after the announcement, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index up 0.4 percent.

Who says that only the (mostly uneducated) Muslims who show intolerance towards other’s religious followers? The (educated) Swiss Christians do as well. They even cannot stand to see a minaret.
The “Yes” vote – to amend the constitution in favor of banning minarets – stunned experts who had predicted the measure would be rejected. It also sent ripples of anxiety across the country’s Muslim community, which makes up about six percent of Switzerland’s population.

Some 57.5 percent of voters backed the initiative, which was championed by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party. The party argues that minarets are a symbol of Islamic political power. There are only four minarets in Switzerland and they will not be affected by the ban.

Public opinion polls ahead of the election predicted that the measure would be rejected, and the Swiss government had urged citizens to vote against it.
Some Swiss leaders justifies the move arguing that the minaret is a symbol of disintegration rather than integration.
The minaret “is a political symbol against integration; a symbol more of segregation, and first of all, a symbol to try to introduce Sharia law parallel to Swiss rights,” Ulrich Schluer said in a telephone interview. Schluer is one of the leaders of the Egerkingen Committee, which authored the bill, and member of parliament with the conservative Swiss People’s Party.

Well, what if Muslims in other parts of the world, where they are in majority, are having similar opinion against their Christian counterparts? What would Westerners think?

Dubai it turns out not as glamorous as it seems. On paying debt in particular
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — As world markets absorbed the shock of Dubai’s debt crisis, the ruler of the once-booming city-state left town for an important meeting in a desert palace. His hosts: the leaders of neighboring Abu Dhabi whose balance sheets are flush with oil revenue.

It’s not known what promises were made inside the halls in Al Ain during the parade of visitors for an important Islamic feast day on Friday. But their new relationship is clear. Abu Dhabi has the cash and cachet to be Dubai’s white knight — in a Gulf version of a too-big-to-fail bailout or to help calm markets with promises to intervene if Dubai’s fiscal mess deepens.

My baby’s blog in blogspot has this error message today
Could not find the key for using BRPS, you may be using old installation code, please go to BRPS for getting the key.
The error message, it turns out, comes from Related Posts for Blogger.com / Blogspot widget. BRPS stands for Blogger Related Posts Service. It’s not an official blogger.com widget, so you don’t need to worry.

How to resolve

BRPS creator has applied a new rule: every blogger who uses BRPS must use a key in order to have the widget worked in your blog. If you install it before this new rule, there will be an error message like the one above. What you have to do is

(1) Get the key by visiting http://brps.appspot.com/getkey
(2) Enter your blog URL in the blank box. Example: http://farzanesfandiar.blogspot.com
(3) It will give you a unique key to change the previous code: <script src=’http://brps.appspot.com/brps.js’ type=’text/javascript’/>
4. The new code will look like this (see the difference): <script src=’http://brps.appspot.com/brps.js?key=708a0b8e’ type=’text/javascript’/>
5. Save Template. Done. See the live demo here.

Note: Do not copy the code #4. You should have a unique code yourself (see step #1).

If you have a newly set-up blog, you need to install one of Feedjit widget in your sidebar to have your blog indexed quicker by major search engine like Google. It’s one of the easiest way. There are four types of widget. You need to put just one of them. Preferably, Live Traffic Feed. Visit this site copy the code and paste into your blog’s sidebar (if you’re blogging in blogger.com or self-hosted blog); if you’re blogging in wordpress.com, you may visit this link instead.

The Live Traffic Feed will let you know who has come to your site and how (via search engine or other websites, etc).

Once your blog gets indexed by Google, you may remove the Feedjit widget if necessary.

To know if your blog is already indexed or not, just go to google.com and type this word in the search box : site:yourblog.com (there should no space between site: and the blog’s name).

Example: I’ll type to know if the blog has been indexed by Google.

Notes:

• If you’re really a newbie and no clue whatsoever on how and where to put the code, here’s the simple steps:
• For Wordpress.com: Widget -> Text ->Drag into the Sidebar -> Paste the code -> Save.
• For Blogger.com / Blogspot: Page Element -> Javascript / HTML -> Paste the code -> Save.

I’ve been to Saudi Arabia several times, seven times to be exact, for Hajj (and as pilgrims guide). During which I barely seen any rainpour in the country. No wonder this downpours is really news worthy even to foreign media. For the hajjis this really a problem for them. Wish them luck and are able to sort this out.
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Flooding killed at least 11 people in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port city of Jeddah on Wednesday after a heavy downpour, with more deaths feared, a civil defence official said.

The 11 victims were believed to have drowned, the official said, requesting anonymity.

The storm struck the western Saudi city in the morning, flooding streets. In one part of Jeddah, a bus could be seen submerged under several metres (yards) of water in an underpass.

A witness told AFP by telephone he had seen several bodies beside another bus that overturned in the storm.

Major roads remained gridlocked by traffic late on Wednesday after the rain stopped and floodwaters receded, witnesses said.