New Australian Islamic Centre takes shape in Melbourne

Source: AIC website. Model of the AIC.

An exhibition at the National Gallery Victoria, Glenn Murcutt: Architecture of Faith, celebrates architect Glenn Murcutt's work on the Australian Islamic Centre (AIC), which is currently being constructed in Newport/Hobsons Bay, Melbourne Australia. The initiative by the NIS will provide more facilities for the growing Islamic community. According to the NIS, there are currently more than 10,000 Muslims in the area.

Murcutt and Hakan Elevli of Elevli+ Architects, a Melbourne practice, worked with the Newport Islamic Society (NIS), a non-for-profit organisation, for nearly a decade on the creation of a contemporary Australian mosque and Islamic centre. Murcutt is well known for environmentally sensitive designs with a distinctive Australian character. His buildings are a blend of modernist sensibility, local craftsmanship and respect for nature.

Murcutt is the only Australian recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize which is awarded annually to “honour a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture".

Murcutt has reimagined the geometry, colours, materiality and spatial organisation of a traditional mosque to create an accessible contemporary place of worship, learning and community. The AIC adopts Murcutt’s ethos of design, maximising the climatic conditions and using materials which are related to local bluestone quarries and the Aboriginal heritage of the location.

The minaret, a traditional part of a mosque and where the call to prayer is made, has been eliminated in Murcutt's design. In the Australian context, the call to prayer or adhan can be announced internally, avoiding disruption to local communities of a different faith. Similarly, Murcutt has taken away the often-standard dome of the mosque, incorporating lanterns that extend over the main roof and orientated to capture the light at the different times of each day. A pool is designed to deflect the afternoon sun into the prayer hall and throw water reflections onto the ceiling and walls.

The establishment is designed to include worship, educational and recreational facilities and will be built in three phases:

Phase one:

• A mosque with approximately 1,200 sq m of prayer areas for both male and female worshippers.
• An Educational Centre consisting of a library and other facilities
• Offices
• Cafe and restaurant
• Imam’s residence
• Two guest houses

Phase two:

• A school with eight classrooms for Arabic and Islamic Studies
• Dedicated study areas

Phase three:

• Indoor recreational and functions centre
• Mens' gym
• Ladies' gym
• Multifunction Hall

Interested?

The Australian Islamic Centre is at 23-31 Blenheim Rd, Newport, Victoria 3015, Australia. Check out construction milestones

Architecture of Faith is at NGV Australia, Federation Square, NGV Design Studio, Ground Level. The exhibition runs till 19 February 2017 and is open 10am to 5pm daily. Entry is free

Afghanistan opens first Hajj Operation Registration Center for central region

Source: MOHIA. HE Dr Abdullah Abdullah, the Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Dr Dai-ul-Haq Abed, Deputy Minister and Superintendent of the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs, Musfer Abdul Rahman Al Ghaseb, Ambassadorof the KSA in Kabul and senior representatives of the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs were present at the opening ceremony.

The first Hajj Operation Registration Center was inaugurated in Afghanistan on 5 June, 2016, the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs (MOHIA) of Afghanistan has reported. The centre was established to streamline the organisation of Hajj affairs for pilgrims of the central part of the country.

HE Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, acknowledged the achievements of pilgrims, and said the new Hajj complex would help the ministry better regulate Hajj pilgrims and that Hajj logistics are expected to be managed more effectively going forward.

Coex is the first exhibition centre in Korea to offer Muslim prayer facilities

Source: COEX Convention and Exhibition
Center. Coex opens first Muslim prayer
room in an exhibition facility in Korea.

The Coex convention and exhibition centre is the first exhibition facility to have prayer rooms for Muslim guests.

“As the number of our internationally oriented exhibitions as increased, so too have the numbers of our Muslim guests,” said Bo Kyung Byun, President and CEO of Coex in a statement on 25 January. "We want to make sure our international guests feel at home at Coex, no matter where they are from. This is a step in that direction.”

The new 26㎡ prayer room is on the third floor of Coex and has separate areas for men and women. To accommodate daily prayer schedules, the room will be open from 3am to 10pm. Qibla information, clocks, Qurans, and prayer mats are provided. 

"This prayer room is not only offering convenience to buyers and MICE visitors coming to Coex, but also encouraging cultural exchange in the fields of trade and tourism,” said Mohammed Chraibi, Chief Director, Korea-Arab Society.

The Coex Center is comprised of four stories above ground with a total of 36,007㎡ of exhibition space and a floor area of 460,000㎡. Four specialized exhibition halls can be partitioned into a total of 12 separate rooms, and include a convention hall with space for up to 7,000 people. The Coex Center also boasts 54 meeting rooms and office space equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and a cutting edge building management system.

Interested?

View the 2015 Muslim Friendly Restaurants in Korea e-book

Possible hoax site for the 15th Exhibition for members of the OIC

Source: Exhibition website.

The site http://islamicexpo-sa.com/, about the 15th Exhibition for members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), is said to be organised by the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT), and to take place at the Riyadh Convention and Exhibition Centre in KSA from 22 to 26 May 2016.

The exhibition is said to be held concurrently with the 17th Private Sector Meeting for the OIC Member States in Riyadh from 22 to 23 May 2016, with the theme Unleash the Opportunities in Textile & Garments Industry in OIC Member States; also with the 15th Trade Fair of the OIC Countries and the 8th Forum for Businesswomen in Islamic Countries, which is also from 22 to 23 May.

The only problem is that the 17th Private Sector Meeting for the OIC Member States has already been held in Riyadh from 8 to 9 November 2015. There is a registration form for the same dates for download at a separate site. The 8th Forum for Businesswomen in Islamic Countries appears to have been held in Kampala, Uganda from 26 to 29 October 2015 - there is also a Facebook post about the event with the October dates from the Islamic Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (ICCIA), organiser of the Forum.


The 15th Trade Fair of The OIC Member States does however seem to be slated for May 2016 in Riyadh but there is no link to the event on the OIC site.

Given the discrepancies in dates and the likelihood that anyone can copy and paste information from an existing event site into another and accept payment to register, it is best to check with the stated organisers - not the ones on the suspect site - to verify if the event is indeed genuine before paying. 

BNP Paribas-INCEIF CIWM co-launch booklet on socially responsible investing

Source: INCEIF. From left: INCEIF Deputy President (Academic), Professor Datuk Syed Othman Alhabshi, BNP Paribas Malaysia chairman Dato’ Abdullah Mat Noh and Director of the MIFC Promotion Unit Nik Mohd Din at the launch of the SRI booklet during the Managing Risks in Islamic Finance Industry symposium organised by CIWM.

The BNP Paribas – INCEIF Centre for Islamic Wealth Management (CIWM) has launched a booklet about socially responsible investing (SRI) titled SRI (Sustainable Responsible and Impactful) & the Case for Islamic Funds. The SRI booklet is a joint effort between CIWM and the Malaysian International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC) to raise awareness on the inextricable link between sustainable and shari'ah compliant investments. 

The booklet has three sections: 

Foundation and growth of investing through principles
Investors' increasing attraction for the SRIs
The case of emerging markets, Islamic investments and the Malaysian option

The key objective of this publication is to create awareness on shared SRI and Islamic finance value propositions and develop a global interest for SRI sukuk. It also seeks to support business engagements in securing SRI mandates and environmental, social and governance-based business. 

Taj Mahal, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre and Hagia Sofia Museum among top landmarks globally

TripAdvisor's Travelers' Choice for the top 25 landmarks include three with Islamic history:

Source: Taj Mahal website.

Ranked no. 3 is the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. The memorial, built by the 5th Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1592 – 1666) to house the grave of his wife Mumtaz Mahal (also named Arjumand Banu Begum, 1593 - 1631), is considered the best of example of Mughal architecture, which combines elements from Persian, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It received an 'excellent' rating from 8,807 TripAdvisor reviewers, and a 'very good' rating from another 1,329 reviewers, out of a total of 10,515 reviews.

Source: the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre website.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre in Abu Dhabi, the UAE is no. 4. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is visible from the three main bridges connecting Abu Dhabi island to the mainland, and aims to highlight the heritage of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The late Sheikh, first President of the UAE, is buried beside the mosque. It received an 'excellent' rating from 7,269 TripAdvisor  reviewers, and a 'very good' rating from another 1,037 reviewers, out of a total of 8,476 reviews.

Source: Hagia Sophia Museum website.

At no. 15 is the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. This building was first used as a church for 916 years, then converted into a mosque following the conquest of Istanbul by Fatih Sultan Mehmed. The Hagia Sophia remained a mosque for 482 years and was turned into a museum by the order of Atatürk and the Council of Ministers in 1935. It received an 'excellent' rating from 1,302 TripAdvisor reviewers, and a 'very good' rating from another 3,821 reviewers, out of a total of 17,957 reviews.

Interested?

View TripAdvisor's top 25 landmarks

Abu Dhabi's Ramadan and Eid Festival opens in July

Source: Ramadan and Eid Festival website.

The Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) will host a Ramadan and Eid Festival from 7 to 28 July. Organised by Al Multaqa Local and International Exhibitions, the festival is an opportunity for family shopping and entertainment after iftar in the evenings throughout Ramadhan. 

This year's event features larger shopping and entertainment areas in addition to the traditional performances, food and games. Special sections include arts and crafts, a heritage village, folk theatre, green products, and early learning zone. About 8,000 visitors a day are expected. 

Team from Australian National University wins against native Arabic speakers in Qatar

Source: ANU, CAIS. The debating team.

A team of four students from the Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies (CAIS) represented Australia and the Australian National University (ANU) at the Third International Universities Arabic Debating Championship held in Doha, Qatar from 26 to 29 April 2015. 

Despite the challenges of debating with native speakers of Arabic, the ANU team - Yara Hussien, Thomas Randall, Derek Bayley and Andrew Findell-Aghnatios, led by CAIS PhD scholar Adel Abdel Ghafar - was commended for its performance both by other teams and the event organisers. The ANU team also won against a team of native Arabic speakers from the American University of the Emirates, which involved debating Internet censorship and democratisation. 

“I am very proud of the team’s performance,” Abdel Ghafar said. “Their performance is a reflection on both the student’s debating skills and the world-class quality of the Arabic programme at CAIS.”

This was the second time ANU students had participated, last competing in the event in 2013. Supported by the Qatar Foundation, the four-day biannual event seeks to unlock human potential by fostering a culture of discussion and debate, helping shape the global citizens of the future and creating the intellectual leaders of tomorrow. 

The championship saw a huge increase in the number of participants this year, with 67 teams representing 33 countries competing. Teams from non-Arab speaking universities came from Australia, India, Pakistan, Brunei, Malaysia, France, Poland, China, Korea, Kazakhstan, the US and Germany.

2015 looks bright all round for Islamic banking and finance

The Islamic banking and finance market exceeded US$2 trillion in assets globally, strengthening in traditional markets such as Malaysia, Pakistan and the Middle East, and expanding into other destinations for the first time, including in Korea, Australia, and China, says the AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics (CIBE), an advisor and consultancy for Islamic finance. 

According to the organisation, countries which recently entered into Islamic banking and finance have also shown good progress, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Oman. 

Muhammad Zubair Mughal, Chief Executive Officer, AlHuda CIBE, predicts that the market could exceed US$2.5 trillion dollars in 2015, estimating that Islamic banking will account for 86% share, with sukuk (6%), Islamic funds (4%), takaful (2%), and Islamic microfinance (1%) rounding out the remainder of the pie. 

He added that there are more than 1,500 organisations offering Islamic financial services in more than 90 countries worldwide, and that non-Muslim countries take up 40% of this share. On the other hand, Muslim countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia dominate in global Islamic banking, contributing 76% of the market. 

Muhammad Zubair Mughal forecast rapid growth of the sukuk market in 2015, and said it could be worth as much as US$150 billion. The Islamic fund market could be valued at US$100 billion. Takaful will contribute a more modest US$20 billion in 2015, a 15% growth rate, with India named as one of its new destinations. Islamic microfinance will also see a positive year, the CEO said. 

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cultural Centre officially open in Ningxia

The Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cultural Centre and Mosque in Wuzhong city, Ningxia autonomous province, China, has been officially opened, WAM, the Emirates News Agency said.

At the ceremony Professor Zhou Yu Dong, Deputy Ruler of Ningxia, thanked the UAE, led by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for the donation to build the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cultural Centre and a mosque in province, pointing out that the project would contribute towards achieving stability and ensuring settlement of the region's displaced inhabitants, who are minority Muslims.

He also highlighted the level of the Chinese-UAE bilateral relations, extending an open invitation to the Emiratis to exchange visits and cooperate with Ningxia. He said that Ningxia, as per the strategy of the Chinese government, is deemed an important gateway for cooperation with Arab and Islamic countries.

In response, Omar Ahmed Adi Nasib Al Bitar, UAE Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, extended thanks to the Ningxia government for cooperation with the UAE citizens to contribute in providing for humanitarian projects in the province, stressing the UAE's keenness on enhancing cooperation in all domains with China in general and Ningxia in particular.

The mosque, which will provide services to Ningxia Muslims in particular and China in general, will accommodate more than 1,200 male and 300 female worshippers, school classrooms, housing apartments and other services. The construction of the mosque was completed in a record time of under nine months.

Dubai's Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department in Dubai (IACAD) separately took delivery of the Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque at Safa (1) District, WAM added.

Mohammed Saeed Al Muhairi, Head of Mosque Affairs Committee, IACAD, said the mosque, built at the expense of Abdullah Rashid Al Suwaidi, will accommodate 630 including a prayer corner which can accommodate 97 ladies.

Australian Centre for Islamic Finance announces January Islamic finance course

The Australian Centre for Islamic Finance (AusCIF) is running four weeks of online classes about Islamic finance, with Q&A sessions from 21 January 2015.

Students spend four to six hours a week over four weeks on the class as they wish. There are live online classes every Wednesday and Thursday from 7 to 9pm AEST (Melbourne/Sydney time) with 12 months' access to all class recordings and lecture notes.

The course will provide practical training and opportunity to explore the key principles of Islamic finance, which AusCIF says is now a A$1.7 trillion-dollar global industry. The centre says those who want to understand more about the rules concerning wealth-related issues in Islam, Islamic banking and finance, are likely to benefit, including, but not limited to practitioners, professionals, lawyers, analysts, regulators, students and imams.

Almir Colan, Director of AusCif and an adviser to several institutions that provide Islamic finance and investment, will deliver the course. He was a consultant lecturer and board member for the Master of Islamic Banking and Finance Course at La Trobe University and a member of the Advisory Reference Group for the Bachelor of Accounting/Associate Degree of Accounting at NMIT. Most recently, he advised the Securities & Investments Institute Asia-Pacific in the area of sukuk and Islamic capital markets. Colan holds an MBA from Deakin University and a Master of Islamic banking and finance degree from La Trobe University. 

“The AusCIF course is spectacular; it provides the student with a concise yet holistic understanding of the vastly growing Islamic finance industry and its innovative shari'ah compliant products... what I mostly found intriguing was its practical approach on dealing with everyday transactions," said Sheikh Moustapha Sarakibi in a testimonial online.

The course is A$197, with an early bird discount of 25% if the registration is made with the using promotion code AUSCIF25 by 1 December 2014. More about a students' discount is available here.

Click here to register. 

*Images from the AusCIF website.

Plantronics launches headsets addressing modern call centre challenges

Plantronics has announced a new family of headset solutions designed for customer service centres and offices. 

Source: Plantronics. The EncorePro 500 family.

According to the company, customer service centres face new challenges with the trend towards using smartphones and self-service. Customers who call customer service representatives (CSRs) with a problem have likely already tried self-service and may even have much more information than the agent. A call has become an escalation that puts more pressure on the CSR to perform, even though the customer is more often than not speaking in a mobile environment with questionable audio quality.

Businesses are also using over-the-phone routes for complex, high-value transactions, where CSRs must work with high-quality audio and yet preserve the confidentiality of customer information.

The Plantronics EncorePro 500 Series is designed for such challenges. It features new materials and technologies that yield an ergonomic fit that is durable, lightweight, and comfortable for all-day wearing. The noise-cancelling technology ensures more focused and private calls, so conversations will be heard clearly with fewer misunderstood words and with reduced background noise from keyboards and close talkers.

The family includes the EncorePro 510/520, which are dedicated over-the-head models, and the EncorePro 540, a convertible model. All models support wideband audio.


"We are building on the world's most successful professional grade headset, the SupraPlus, and this is a challenge we did not take lightly. Our deep understanding of the new business needs and role of customer service, and the availability of new materials, design philosophies, manufacturing techniques and core technologies resulted in a new portfolio that is not only state-of-the-art by today's standards, but also future-proofed to adapt as the landscape changes," said Bill Loewenthal, VP, Enterprise Communications Solutions, Plantronics. 

The new EncorePro 540 (convertible) model is immediately available. The EncorePro 510/520 (dedicated over-the-head monaural and binaural models) will be available in both noise-cancelling and voice tube* versions in December. 

Visit www.plantronics.com/contactcenter for information and pricing. View the associated video here.

*Voice tubes transfer sound more clearly across a distance.

BGC promoting murabaha mechanism with Dubai Multi Commodity Centre

BGC Partners, a global brokerage company servicing the wholesale financial and real estate markets, has partnered with the Dubai Multi Commodity Centre (DMCC) to promote a shari'ah-compliant commodity murabaha mechanism. 

The March agreement is the first between DMCC and an interdealer broker to jointly market commodity murabaha on the DMCC Tradeflow Platform. The partnership offers the trading community a faster, more efficient method of trading this niche financial product, and promotes Dubai as the global centre of Islamic finance at the same time. 
  
Said Charlie Sleightholme, Head of Commodity Murabaha Business at BGC in Dubai: "While trading of this product has been in existence for some time, our joint offering brings a modernisation to the process, offering speed, convenience and innovation to the execution of this popular product."

"We are thrilled to offer an exciting, world class mechanism for the trading of commodity murabaha which we believe will garner significant interest from the trading community both domestically and internationally," commented Paul Boots, Director, Tradeflow at DMCC. 

"With BGC's premier global reputation, its relationships with top-tier institutions across the world and its leading electronic trading capabilities, we believe that commodity murabaha customers will see significant benefits in terms of efficiency and transparency. This, in turn, will continue to promote and assert Dubai's reputation as a preeminent global capital of Islamic finance."

Established in 2002 by Royal Decree, the DMCC is a strategic government initiative of the Government of Dubai designed to enhance trade flows through the UAE by providing infrastructure and an optimal environment allowing clients to fully benefit from both a regulated framework and convenient location. 

The DMCC has helped to bridge the gap in the region between the commodity industry and trade finance by providing a mechanism for the issue of electronic warehouse receipts on behalf of the owners of stored commodities since 2004. In 2012, the DMCC Tradeflow platform unified these services, providing members with a holistic approach to the process of certifying commodities for the purposes of trade finance, as well as for the trade of locally stored commodities between Islamic banking institutions and their counterparties through the commodity murabaha mechanism.

*Murabaha is not an interest-bearing loan, which is considered riba (or excess) and forbidden under shari'ah (Islamic religious law), and is rather an acceptable form of credit sale. Murabaha is an Islamic financing structure in which an intermediary buys an asset with free and clear title to it. The intermediary and prospective buyer then agree upon a sale price (including an agreed-upon profit for the intermediary) that can be made through a series of installments, or as a lump sum payment. 

Similar in structure to a rent-to-own arrangement, the intermediary retains ownership of the property until the loan is paid in full. It is important to note that to prevent riba, the intermediary cannot be compensated in addition to the agreed-upon terms of the contract. For this reason, if the buyer is late on their payments, the intermediary cannot charge any late penalties.