Fateh فتح Fatah P.L.O حركة فتح

Fatah vs Hamas - Fateh vs Hamas

Fatah Forces
Palestinians seek cover as Fatah security forces, loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, take up positions during clashes with Hamas fighters on January 4, 2007 in Deir Al-Balah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas Gunmen
A Palestinian girl runs to safety as members of Hamas, the ruling party, battle Fatah militants in the West Bank town of Nablus. Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the West, won control of the Palestinian legislation in January 2006.

Street fight
Palestinian security forces clash with supporters of Hamas in Ramallah. The violence followed accusations by Hamas that Abbas’s faction tried to kill Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, a senior member of Hamas, in a Gaza shootout in which one of Haniya’s bodyguards died.

Innocent bystanders
A Palestinian man protects two children during a gunbattle between Hamas supporters and security forces loyal to Fatah in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The Fatah Leader
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pauses during a joint media conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Abbas favors peace talks with Israel, while Hamas refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

The Hamas Leader
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya is surrounded by bodyguards as he attends a rally commemorating the 19th anniversary of the founding of Hamas in Gaza City. Haniya called for Palestinian guns to be aimed at Israelis, and not other Palestinians. “Our fight,” he said, “is not an internal one. It’s against the occupation.”

Human Toll
Palestinians mourn during the funeral of a Hamas supporter Ayymm Jerjawi killed during a battle with Fatah gunmen.

Aftermath
A Palestinian man surveys the damage to the home of Fatah security force officer Colonel Mohammed Ghayeb, who was killed in an attack during factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas in the Jabalya Refugee Camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

Crossroads
A Palestinian man walks along the street in Gaza City during clashes between Fatah and Hamas. In December 2006 Abbas called for early elections, saying he wanted to end the stalemate between the two factions; Hamas responded by calling the move “a coup.”

Pictures from time http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2007/fatah_hamas/

The Islamic Financial System is a very limited sector where Islamic Insurance (takaful), kafala, and shariah rulings are hard to apply in many European countries and USA.

The elimination of RIBA or the interest in all its forms is an important feature of the Islamic financial system, banking and insurance. As a core value, Islamic banking aims to remove the exploitation and to make a good society by applying the Shariah and the Islamic law for any bank operational movement and to any financial body or institutions.

A controversial study looking at Islamic banking by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. has ignited protest from some sectors of the Muslim community.

But despite opposition from the Muslim Canadian Congress, the federal housing authority said yesterday it is going forward with the study looking at banking that adheres to Islam’s guiding body of rules, or sharia.

Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, which bills itself as a progressive Muslim group, said in an interview he was “shocked” to learn that “a Crown corporation is using taxpayers’ money” for faith-based banking.

Fatah calls sharia banking the “biggest con job ever. What are we going to have next, Buddhist banking?” he asked.

The congress released a letter yesterday written to CMHC chief executive officer Karen Kinsley, urging the housing authority to abandon the $100,000 study.

“Religion has no place in the banking or mortgage industry,” the letter said.

The group says the vast majority of Canadian Muslims already use conventional mortgages.

However there is a growing market in Canada for sharia-compliant mortgages.

Under sharia rules, it is not permissible for institutions to charge interest on loans. However, the deal is usually structured so that the homeowner ends up leasing to own the property, essentially paying rent instead of interest. As a result, those mortgages end up costing the homeowner the equivalent of an extra one percentage point or more. That is what concerns the congress.

“You are taking advantage of the most disadvantaged people. You are telling them that we will charge you more for your total mortgage and when you die you will go to heaven,” Fatah said. “They are using the holy books to prey on a vulnerable market.”

Sharia-based banking is already available in Canada, but not through major banks. Sharia banking is widely available in the United Kingdom and is offered by some U.S. banks that see a major financial opportunity.

The global market for Islamic finance has grown more than 20 per cent annually since 2001, and is currently the fastest growing segment of the financial services industry, said a report this month by the law firm Stikeman Elliott LLP.

By 2017, Muslims are expected to make up between 3.7 and 4.9 per cent of Canada’s population, which should provide a “tremendous opportunity for financial firms prepared to serve the growing market.”

In response to the criticism by the Muslim groups, Douglas Stewart, the CMHC’s vice-president of policy and planning, said in an interview that the agency was not trying to promote Islamic banking in Canada.

“It is not our intention to introduce a mortgage instrument for sharia lending,” Stewart said. “We simply want to gather information to better understand sharia banking. It is part of our mandate to understand all aspects of the Canadian housing system.”

Monte Solberg, the federal minister responsible for human resources and skills development, said in an interview with the Toronto Star that the market for Islamic mortgages in Canada was already “well served” and there was no reason for the CMHC to introduce a new financial product.

(Apart from research, the national agency also has a mortgage loan insurance division.)

“If private institutions are already serving that market, then we don’t need to be involved,” Solberg said. “There’s no public policy reason.”

As for the research proposal, the CMHC says it has had about 10 applications from academics and consultants in response to a proposal call in December.

Meanwhile, one executive at a financial institution that deals with sharia lending said the controversy was unwarranted since it was a matter of religious choice.

“When you purchase halal or kosher meat, you understand that you may be paying a higher price for the same meat that’s not kosher. And some people are willing to do that, because religion is important to them. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

An ongoing war crimes campaign against Israelis for death of Palestinian political prisoner will never stop or see the light.

alestinian political prisoner Fadal Shaheen died from medical neglect in Israeli prison. Fateh leader and political prisoner Marwan Al Barghouti is leading a campaign to bring war crimes charges against the Israelis. Although Shaheen is the first to die this year, there are seven other cases pending.

“This is yet another case of deliberate medical neglect by the prison administration.”

In a statement for the campaign it was reiterated that in light of the latest Israeli aggression against the people of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a new silence has blanketed the plight of political prisoners. They are victims who are rotting in Israeli prisons, but these heroes behind bars who bleed daily under the weight of the jail warden will not be forgotten.”

The Israeli prison administration has violated international norms and laws, human rights laws and international treaties. Deliberate medical neglect also contravenes the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions.