Adolf Merckle, one of Germany’s wealthiest men, committed suicide after weeks of talks with creditors designed to save his businesses from being consumed by disastrous investments and the global financial crisis.

The billionaire, 74, was said by his family to have been “broken” by the sight of his business empire, which ranged from pharmaceuticals to cement, crumbling. He died on Monday evening, apparently hit by a train a few hundred metres from his home in southern Germany.

The Spanish is not only playing a beautiful game, they also have a beautiful character, a humble body language compared to their opponent. I am not the supporter of either side but I am happy to see the prettier side both in game and attitude winning the game. It’s just like seeing a fairy tale film where the cool and calm protagonist win in the end of fierce fighting with the villains. It also reminds me of an individual all time great tennis player: Roger Federer.

A nice wrap up and stats by James Cone of Bloomberg:

Spain beat Germany 1-0 to win soccer’s European Championship, ending a 44-year wait for a major international title.

Fernando Torres scored after 33 minutes at Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, giving Spain its second European Championship. Its first came in 1964.

Spain’s Luis Aragones, at age 69 years and 338 days, becomes the oldest coach to lead a team to the title. Spain hadn’t advanced beyond the quarterfinals since finishing as runner-up 24 years ago. The national team, once known for being unable to match the successes of clubs Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, now has played 22 matches without a loss.

The most shocking upset yet of Euro2008’s quarter final

Turkey defeated Croatia in a penalty shoot-out following a remarkable last few minutes of extra-time in Vienna Friday to reach the semi-finals of the European Championships and a meeting with record champions Germany.

Anyone dare to put their money for Turkey against Germany in semifinal?

Fatih Terim, the Turkish coach describe the victory thus:

What has happened to us today is unique in history. We have become one of the most important football nations.

And

Our people can celebrate with us. If our people are proud of us then we are proud of our people

Obviously the Turkish people will celebrate with them and proud of them. Just like if Indonesian football team were to achieve what they have gone through.

It’s easier to be associated with something proudable.

Now, after Turkey beat the “killer of the giants” Croatia, it’s understandable to further another puzzle: Can Turkey Do what Greece has done?

Update 26 June:
Final score in the first Euro2008 semifinal Germany 3 – Turkey 2

He said the medieval text which he quoted did not express in any way his personal opinion, adding the speech was an invitation to respectful dialogue.

Some Muslim leaders said his statement was sufficient to defuse the row, but others said it did not go far enough.

The 14th Century Christian emperor’s quote said the Prophet Muhammad brought the world only evil and inhuman things.

The Pope has been under intense scrutiny amid angry reactions from throughout the Muslim world.

I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect

Pope Benedict XVI

Text of Pope’s apology
Excerpts from original speech
Reaction was mixed in Turkey, although Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the Pope’s planned visit to the mainly Muslim country was still expected to go ahead in November.

Turkey’s most senior Muslim religious figure, Ali Bardakoglu, welcomed the Pope’s statement, and described his respect for Islam as a “civilised position”.

But State Minister Mehmet Aydin said the pontiff appeared to be saying he was sorry for the outrage but not necessarily the remarks themselves.

“You either have to say this ‘I’m sorry’ in a proper way or not say it at all – are you sorry for saying such a thing or because of its consequences?” he said.

HAVE YOUR SAY
Pope Benedict probably should self-criticise Christianity’s violent past before commenting on the other faith

John Lin, Illinois

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The Egyptian opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, welcomed what it called the Pope’s “retraction”, but later warned that it did not amount to a definitive apology and would not be enough to satisfy all Muslims.

In Germany, the Central Council of Muslims said the Pope had taken an important step towards calming the unrest of the past few days.

‘Mutual respect’

Pope Benedict XVI issued his apology from the balcony at his residence at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome as gave the Angelus blessing.

“I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims,” he told pilgrims.

Several West Bank churches have been attacked
“These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought.

“I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect.”

Hours before the Pope spoke, two churches in the West Bank were attacked with firebombs in what was believed to be a reaction to the Bavaria speech.

In the Somali capital Mogadishu, an Italian nun was shot dead by gunmen. The shooting may have been connected to strong criticism of the speech by a radical Somali cleric.

And in Iran, hundreds of people gathered at rallies in major cities.

Conservative cleric Ahmad Khatami compared the pontiff to US President George W Bush, saying the two were “united in order to repeat the Crusades”.

Protests

In his speech at Regensburg University on Tuesday, the German-born Pope quoted Emperor Manuel II Paleologos of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire.

Stressing that they were not his own words, he quoted the emperor saying: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

He also said violence was “incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul”.

Reactions to the speech came from such leaders as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who said efforts to link Islam and terrorism should be clearly opposed.

Street protests were held in Pakistan, India, Turkey and Gaza
Courtesy: BBC.co.uk

* Can we consider September eleventh events as a turning point and a beginning of another era? And do you think that there is a suitable Islamic project, dealing with the western mentality, by which we can confront the ramification of such events?

I don’t believe really that eleventh of September was such a monumental change. It was very important for the American mentality just like Pearl Harbor have been for instance. In Germany we had monumental events like the end of World War II which was an enormous catastrophe. The Japanese had events like the atomic attacks and yet after some time the world gets back to normal. I also think that this will be the fate of eleventh of September; it will be an important date in the history books, but the world will settle down to normal and as far as Islam is concerned eleventh of September has in the long run been an advantage to Islam in as much as more people than ever are seeking information about Islam, all books on Islam were sold out within 14 days. In Germany, a translation of the Quran which I edited sold 40,000 times within a year which goes to show that the shock effect can translate into more knowledge about Islam in the long run and if we move out of the present hysteria, we may see more appreciation of Islam after all.

By Hossam Tammam

Staff writer – IslamOnline.net

“I can see that because I’m standing with one leg in the orient and with the other one in the Occident that’s why I understand both worlds sufficiently well to explain them to each other, so often when I’m in the Muslim world I explain to them the west and in the west I explain Islam”. This is how Murad Hoffman the famous Muslim German thinker reflects his unique situation, being exposed to different knowledge and experiences.

Murad Wilfried Hoffman was Germany’s ambassador to Algeria and Morocco between 1987-94 and was earlier Director of Information for NATO at Brussels. He embraced Islam in 1980. He received his education at Union College in New York and did his Masters degree in German Law in Munich and took his doctorate from Harvard. His first book on Islam was Diary of a German Muslim (1990). Second book Islam: the Alternative raised protests in Germany and he was dubbed a fundamentalist by Leftists.

Here Hoffman discusses with Islam Online his views and concerns about various intellectual and practical problematic contexts of both the common grounds and the differences between the East and the West especially after September eleventh. He tries to reassert the opportunities and challenges of Islam and Muslims in the western societies, drawing the difference between these western societies.

* Can we consider September eleventh events as a turning point and a beginning of another era? And do you think that there is a suitable Islamic project, dealing with the western mentality, by which we can confront the ramification of such events?

I don’t believe really that eleventh of September was such a monumental change. It was very important for the American mentality just like Pearl Harbor have been for instance. In Germany we had monumental events like the end of World War II which was an enormous catastrophe. The Japanese had events like the atomic attacks and yet after some time the world gets back to normal. I also think that this will be the fate of eleventh of September; it will be an important date in the history books, but the world will settle down to normal and as far as Islam is concerned eleventh of September has in the long run been an advantage to Islam in as much as more people than ever are seeking information about Islam, all books on Islam were sold out within 14 days. In Germany, a translation of the Quran which I edited sold 40,000 times within a year which goes to show that the shock effect can translate into more knowledge about Islam in the long run and if we move out of the present hysteria, we may see more appreciation of Islam after all.

* But at least those events have had serious effects on Muslims, how do you evaluate these effects?

Of course I’m living these effects. I encounter suspicion, when you are law abiding, even then you are suspected of being a potential terrorist. When you travel to the United States, you are being treated as never as before; you have to wait for hours for your suitcase and you are obviously under suspicion. But the Muslims in America reasserted their approach; they even organized after eleventh of September the first central meeting of Muslims in America, the so called ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) meeting. They organized that for the first time in Washington to make a point and 42000 Muslims came to Washington, most of them very young and most of the very young women wearing Hijab. That was the answer of the Muslims; not to fight but to stand up for what they believe and to be assertive, not defensive.

* In your opinion, how can you see the Islamic project and its approaches towards the West?

D’awa can not be centralized. Effective D’awa can only be carried out locally because if somebody speaks for Islam with a foreign accent, Islam will automatically be treated as a foreign thing, not as a universal thing. Also you have to know how people think, that means you have to go through the same education they had in order to know the pitfalls. You have to know the history of the people because they have collective memories. Only if we know all that you can be an effective D’uaa. To give you an example, we get often Islamic books from Pakistan or from India, their English is faulty, their paper is bad, the binding is awful, there are many printing mistakes. That alone disqualifies the books, people won’t even touch them because they are used good paper, good binding, perfect printing and it is little things like that that disqualifies a book that otherwise would be worthwhile reading. This is cultural. This is the answer to that question.

*There are repeated calls from different sides to the Muslims to renew their discourses and projects, what do you think about that?

Every new generation of Muslims has to reconvert, you can not inherit a religion. The Western German poet called Goethe who put it very well, he said: “You have to acquire your inheritance in order to boss it”. And that means every generation has to go back to Quran and Sunna again and again in order to make it relevant against the background of its own problematic context.

* Some people believe that the achievements or the Islamic intellectual thought and jurisprudence so far has not interacted effectively with humanity and the world at large. Being an intellectual who is Muslim and Western, what is your opinion?

I agree with that statement fully. The problem is that the Muslim world has not developed with corresponds to orientalism in the West. In the West there are specialists for Islam who know a lot about Islam, who speak Arabic and Persian (I mean Farsi) and Turkish, this is the minimum of what they have to learn, so the West is equipped to understand Islam from the inside. There is no such thing as Occidentalism in the Muslim world. You find very few people who have a command of western languages plus western history plus western philosophy plus Christianity for instance in all its details and that is part of the function. I can see that because I’m standing with one leg in the orient and with the other one in the Occident and I understand both worlds sufficiently well to explain them to each other, so often when I’m in the Muslim world I explain to them the west and in the west I explain Islam.

* Do you think that there is an Islamic absence in the respect of engaging with human international issues and problems? For example, with the international anti- globalization movement, what we have to do in order to readdress the situation?

I think the Palestinian issue is central in this respect .It is true that the policies of Israel against Palestinians and the support given to it by the United States are highly criticized in most of Europe and even in America itself. There’s a growing feeling among Americans that Washington is no longer run by Americans but by Zionists and basically from Israel and this makes these people very unhappy, so there may be a growing numbers of people who are against this Bush policy towards Israel. And you are definitely right, what happens in Chechnya, in Kashmir, in Algeria, in Pakistan, in the United Nations Security Council is dealt with a double standard. United Nations resolutions against Israel are never applied but United Nations resolutions against any of the Muslim countries are immediately applied. And that’s why one of my books I wrote a chapter called: “Blond blue eyed and other human rights” meaning, I said, human rights are blond and blue eyed.

And the Muslim world is mostly absent; the same was true in Bosnia. Who finally interfered massively in favor of the Muslims in Bosnia and in Kosovo? It was the west; it was not the Muslim world. Why is this so? Why can we not get our act together? It is first of all, I think, because the Muslim world has been divided by colonialism into nations that now behave like independent nations and not like the Umma. Everybody has a flag and a dictator and that is tragic. If the Muslim people themselves would count, they would get their act together. It is the governments that don’t permit it.

*Many may think that Muslims in the west are living on the production of the intellect and jurisprudence made in the East. What is the reason for this and when do you think there will be an independent Islamic Fiqh and intellect and culture which are the production of the west?

I fully deny the assumption you made. There is much more intellectual Islamic life in the west in the East. More serious books on Islam are being published in English than in Arabic. We have very productive centers for Islamic institution of thought in Washington led by Taha Gaber Al-Elwany, he’s an Azharite. We have another one in Los Anglos led by Fathy Othman, Azharite. We have one in London led by Zaky Badawy, Azharite. I’m writing book reviews, every year about 20 books; meaning I read about 4000 pages of Islamic books each year for the so called Muslim world book review which is published in England in Markfield where there is a wonderful Islamic foundation. And since Muslim thinkers in the West can write without censorship, their production is likely to be essential for the development of Islam in the Muslim world. I think the Muslims in America and in Europe will be the leaders for the intellectual revitalization of the Muslims in the East.

*But at the same time we believe that the west is still depending on the east in terms of intellect and thought. Even the names you have just mentioned like Elwany, Badawi and Fathy Othman, they were reared and they started their life in the east. Besides that the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) is still headed by Al-Qaradawi and Mawlawi. The question is: is the infrastructure for westerner Islamic thought and intellect being built in the west?

I think so indeed and even the three people mentioned are so much influenced by their being in the west. This has fruitful repercussions on their production, on their thinking, on their approach.

*How do you see the future of Muslims in the west especially after the eleventh of September tragic events?

This can not be answered without distinguishing between those parts of the west which is mainly atheistic and where the Christian church is no longer a major player and those countries where people are still religious. Take the United States; the United States is a religious country. You can not be the President of the United States without going to some church.

In Europe, it is the opposite, the German chancellor, he is a professing atheist. And the majority of the intellectuals in Europe are non believers. Now, it is easier for Muslims to deal with believers than with non believers.

The second element is: who is the majority of Muslims? In Germany: it is Turks, in France: it is North Africans, in England: it is Indo-Pakistanis. And that makes a big difference for each of these countries. The Turks for instance came without knowing any German while the North Africans; they knew French before they came to France and the Indo-Pakistanis knew English before they came to England so they had a head start.

Secondly, India is so far away that these people immediately identify with burden. The North Africans identify with France because they are political refugees, they don’t want to go back. The Turks however want to go back because they came for economic reasons, not for political reasons. The picture is different in every country.

Now, the most important difference is in favor of Muslims in America. The Muslims in Europe all came as workers, unskilled workers and therefore, socially, they started from the bottom and this you can still notice. In America, Muslims came as students from the entire Muslim world and they all went to become doctors, engineers, lawyers… with the result that the Muslim population in America has the highest ratio of academically trained people in America, more than the Jews.

*Having retired from civil service, are you writing your memoirs? What is new in your production? Are you writing special books?

I am 72 years of age and I have written ten books on Islam, I think that is sufficient. My diary you would find in the book: “rehla ela Makka”;(My Journey to Mecaa) But I do write articles for “Islamic Studies” in Islamabad, for the “American Journal for Islamic Social Studies” in Washington, for “Encounters” in England and I’m writing for an Islamic newspaper in Germany. We have an Islamic newspaper.

* Based on an interview by Hossam Tammam, the Editor of the Cultural page in islamonline.net (Arabic Section), during an intrafaith dialogue conference in El Manama – Bahrain 15/01/2004