The English website of the Islamic magazine - Al-Mujtama.
A leading source of global Islamic and Arabic news, views and information for more than 50 years.
May 08, 2024
Tottenham legendary goal-scorer Jimmy Greaves dies at 81
Staff
September 20, 2021
Jimmy Greaves, the legendary striker of England and Tottenham Hotspur, has died at the age of 81.
Tottenham on Sunday announced the death of the club's former player at his home.
With 266 goals in 379 appearances from 1961 to 1970, Greaves is the London club's record goal-scorer.
Greaves also netted 44 goals in 57 matches for England and he was also part of his nation’s 1966 World Cup-winning squad./agencies
Read 1850 times
Afghan schools to reopen for boys, say Taliban
Staff
September 18, 2021
All Afghan schools and Islamic seminaries for boys will reopen from Saturday, the interim Taliban administration has announced.
The order applies to male students and teachers from grade six and above, as those in lower grades were already told to return to school.
"All middle and high schools and formal madrassas have been notified of the start of their educational process on Sept.18," it said.
"All male teachers and students must attend their educational institutions."
The statement on Friday, however, made no mention when high schools for females would open. Girls in grades one to six had been allowed to resume classes before.
The acting government earlier said women in Afghanistan can pursue an education at all levels in any field, but classes will be segregated and there will be a compulsory dress code.
The Taliban did not allow girls to attend school during their first rule, which lasted from 1996 to 2001. They took power in Afghanistan again last month, and have formed a 33-member interim government, which is yet to be recognized by the international community./agencies
Read 2068 times
Turkey, Germany against idea of biennial football World Cup
Staff
September 18, 2021
Turkey and Germany on Friday opposed the idea of holding a FIFA World Cup every two years.
In a statement, the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) said it has been following the situation of possible revised international calendar for some time, and is concerned about serious financial troubles for the clubs, and mental fatigue on the players expected in case of a possible change.
It said that major international tournaments have value, and attract more attention since they are held less frequently.
The federation said it supports the current international calendar, and a World Cup should be held once in four years.
Earlier, the German Football Association (DFB) expressed full support to UEFA's position that a decision on such an important matter cannot be taken without the consent of European football associations.
The association listed several reasons for its decision, including immense physical and mental strain on national team players if they play major international tournaments every year in succession.
Last week, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin dismissed the idea, warning of a potential European boycott of the World Cup if FIFA's plans go ahead.
The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) has also criticized the plan, saying that the proposed changes would make circumstances extremely difficult for both the clubs and nations.
Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president in charge since 2016, is said be a supporter of the biennial World Cup idea.
Saudi Arabia formally proposed its feasibility study at a virtual FIFA meeting in May./agencies
Read 2135 times
Football legend Pele says getting better after surgery
Staff
September 12, 2021
Brazilian football legend Pele said he is recovering after a recent surgery to remove a tumor in his right colon.
"My friends, with each passing day I feel a little better. I'm looking forward to playing again, but I'm still going to recover for a few more days," the 80-year-old said on Instagram late Friday.
"While I'm here, I take the opportunity to talk a lot with my family and to rest. Thanks again for all the loving messages. We'll be together again soon!"
He underwent the operation on Sept. 4 after being admitted to Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital on Aug. 31 for routine annual checkups.
One of the football greats, Pele helped Brazil win the FIFA World Cup three times in 1958, 1962, and 1970. He still has the most World Cup wins as a player./agencies
Read 1358 times
Insecurity forces more than 300 school forced closures in Niger
Staff
September 10, 2021
Recent insecurity has forced more than 300 schools to close in Niger, affecting over 22,000 children, UNICEF said Thursday.
In a statement to mark International Day to Protect Education from Attack, UNICEF said threats to school security were particularly acute in Tillabery, Tahoua and Diffa.
Access to schools in the regions is restricted, hampering efforts to support children affected by armed violence.
“The number of schools forced to close due to insecurity in conflict-affected areas has increased from 312 to 377 over recent months in Niger,” it said.
In some areas, up to 80% of children may be victims of psychological trauma, potentially preventing them from achieving their full potential as adults.
“Attacks on schools, students and teachers are a denial of children’s right to education and threaten their future. Without access to education, a generation of children living in conflict will grow up without the skills they need to contribute to their country and economy, exacerbating the already desperate situation for millions of children and their families,” said Stefano Savi, UNICEF representative in Niger.
Noting that education is a lifesaver, Savi said a child’s right to education cannot be safeguarded in conflict zones without education being protected.
“Out of school, children are easy targets of abuse, exploitation and recruitment by armed forces and groups. School should provide a safe space where children can be protected from threats and crises. It is also a critical step to breaking the cycle of crisis and reduces the likelihood of future conflicts,” he said.
Western Niger has in recent years witnessed devastating attacks orchestrated by terror organizations linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), Ancar Dine and other militant groups based in northern Mali.
Hundreds of civilians and soldiers have been killed in the attacks, according to official figures./aa
Read 1730 times
Erdogan says face-to-face classes will continue as total doses of jabs administered nears 100M countrywide
Staff
September 07, 2021
As pupils in Turkey returned to classes on Monday after a long COVID-19 break, the nation’s president vowed to maintain in-person learning with strict measures in place.
“With the digital infrastructure we have established at the National Education Ministry, we closely monitor and will follow the processes in our schools and the course of the disease. We are determined to continue in-class learning,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a ceremony in an Istanbul school, marking the first day of the new term.
Touching on the adverse impact of the pandemic on education, he said: “As Turkey, we had to act carefully during the last academic year because of the extent of the deadly effect of the virus.
“We have exercised extreme caution not to risk the lives of our teachers, children, and their families. We left behind the period when we opened our schools from time to time but mostly held lessons via the EBA,” which stands for Educational Informatics Network, the TV and internet platform through which most of the distant education was carried out in Turkey.
Erdogan said the National Education Ministry and Health Ministry set the rules and measures to be taken at schools.
“By supplying hygiene and cleaning materials and masks, we formed an infrastructure through which the parents will send their children to school safely,” he continued.
The course of the disease will be followed closely via the digital infrastructure at the National Education Ministry, Erdogan said, calling on all citizens to get vaccinated.
“The total number of doses that have been administered as part of our vaccination campaign that we maintain on the basis of volunteering nears 100 million,” he added.
As schools have reopened for face-to-face learning after a long break since March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, some 18 million students will attend classes five days a week.
Breaks and meals times will be scheduled for different intervals to avoid crowds. Classes will be held in 40-minute periods at most.
School administrations will provide free-of-charge masks for students and school personnel in case anyone needs them.
Unvaccinated teachers and school staff will take PCR tests twice a week. Parents and visitors will not be admitted to schools except in mandatory situations. School authorities can check the visitors’ HES code – coronavirus contact tracing system – to see whether they are “risk-free.”
Turkey has so far confirmed over 6 million coronavirus cases and 52,860 deaths, while nearly 80% of the country’s adult population has received at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine./aa
Read 1659 times
China bans exams for six-year-old schoolchildren
Staff
August 31, 2021
China has announced a ban on written exams for six and seven-year-olds.
It's the latest effort to try and relieve pressure on parents and students in a highly competitive education system.
Students used to be required to take exams from the first year of primary school, up until a university entrance exam at the age of 18.
But the education ministry said the pressure is harming the "physical and mental health" of pupils.
In a statement, the ministry said: "Exams are a necessary part of school education.... [but] some schools have problems like excessive exams, that cause excessive burden on students...this must be corrected."
The rules also limits the number of test and exams a school can set per term.
"First and second grades of elementary school will not need to take paper-based exams. For other grades, the school can organise a final exam every semester. Mid-term exams are allowed for junior high. Localities are not allowed to organise regional or inter-school exams for all grades of primary school," the Ministry of Education (MOE) added.
"Non-graduating junior high students are also not allowed to organise weekly tests, unit exams, monthly exams etc. Examinations disguised under various names like academic research is also not allowed."
Reaction on China's social media platform Weibo was mixed with some saying it was a step in the right direction to relieve pressure on children. Others questioned how schools will test and measure abilities without exams.
The announcement is part of wider reforms in China's education sector.
In July, Beijing stripped online tutoring firms operating in the country of the ability to make a profit from teaching core subjects.
The new guidelines also restricted foreign investment in the industry and disrupted the private tutoring sector which was worth around $120bn (£87bn) before the overhaul.
At the time, the move was seen as authorities trying to ease the financial pressures of raising children, after China posted a record low birth rate.
Education inequality is also a problem - more affluent parents are willing to spend thousands to get their children into top schools.
The country's obsession with education also affects property prices, with wealthier parents snapping up property in school catchment areas.
China's Ministry of Education has also banned homework for first graders this year, and limited homework for junior high school students to 1.5 hours a night, according to an AFP report.
Read 2169 times
The University of Virginia removed more than 200 students from its rolls for not meeting the school's coronavirus vaccine requirement.
Of the 238 students disenrolled, only 49 were actually registered for fall semester classes, leading the university to believe that the majority of the students "may not have been planning to return to the University this fall at all," university spokesman Brian Coy said in an email to The Virginian-Pilot.
The students were removed after "receiving multiple reminders via email, text, phone calls, calls to parents that they were out of compliance and had until yesterday to update their status," Coy said.
The university is requiring all students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated before returning to its Charlottesville campus unless they have a medical or religious exemption. About 96.6% of the university's 27,115 undergrad and graduate students have been fully vaccinated, the university said earlier this week./CBS
Read 1552 times
Turkey committed to resuming face-to-face education
Staff
August 20, 2021
Turkey will resume face-to-face learning five days a week beginning Sept. 6, the nation’s education minister said Thursday.
Mahmut Ozer said the country wants to continue full-time face-to-face learning unless health conditions dictate otherwise.
"Education in schools will be carried out without reducing class hours while being committed to the entire existing curriculum," said Ozer.
He said the vaccination rate for teachers who received at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine is 80.34% as of Wednesday, and the rate is 69.73% for a second jab.
Ozer also said vaccinations will not be mandatory but necessary measures will be taken by the Health Ministry.
School administrations will provide masks to students and school personnel free of charge in case anyone needs them.
Turkey has administered more than 87 million COVID-19 vaccine doses since launching a mass immunization campaign in January.
According to the Health Ministry, the country confirmed 19,320 new infections and 216 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, while as many as 14,743 more patients recovered.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that PCR tests, which will be mandatory for unvaccinated teachers, staff, and university students when academic activities resume Sept. 6, will be conducted for free at public hospitals.
Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 4.39 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with an excess of 209.67 million cases reported worldwide, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University,/aa
Read 1785 times
The Olympic Games started with the opening ceremony in a near-empty National Stadium in the Japanese capital Tokyo in the shadow of COVID-19 on Friday. https://cdnuploads.aa.com.tr/uploads/PhotoGallery/2021/07/23/thumbs_b2_47adbfa97db754257865f5315d4f850b.jpg%22%20title=%22Tokyo%202020%20Olympic%20Games%22%20style=%22width:100%;display:block;%22%20%3E%3Cimg%20class=%22mySlides%22%20src=%22https://cdnuploads.aa.com.tr/uploads/PhotoGallery/2021/07/23/thumbs_b2_79e2b18700171ab9ce3c6524d0e07b7b.jpg%22%20title=%22Tokyo%202020%20Olympic%20Games%22%20style=%22width:100%;display:none;%22%20%3E%3Cimg%20class=%22mySlides%22%20src=%22https://cdnuploads.aa.com.tr/uploads/PhotoGallery/2021/07/23/thumbs_b2_43bd180ffaa24c76da3f6005898bbf4f.jpg%22%20title=%22Tokyo%202020%20Olympic%20Games%22%20style=%22width:100%;display:none;%22%20%3E%3Cimg%20class=%22mySlides%22%20src=%22https://cdnuploads.aa.com.tr/uploads/PhotoGallery/2021/07/23/thumbs_b2_372cf3461c33bc7437e098b38ae4df7e.jpg%22%20title=%22Tokyo%202020%20Olympic%20Games%22%20style=%22width:100%;display:none;%22%20%3E%3Cimg%20class=%22mySlides%22%20src=%22https://cdnuploads.aa.com.tr/uploads/PhotoGallery/2021/07/23/thumbs_b2_98905e0cd484f000faa1cf7ebef796ce.jpg%22%20title=%22Tokyo%202020%20O">
Athletes from 205 participating countries and the refugee team marched into the stadium with their flags in front of the empty stands due to the coronavirus.
Turkey's flag was carried by swimmers Merve Tuncel and Berke Saka.
The ceremony began with a firework display, while a moment of silence was held for people who lost their lives due to the disease.
Featured in the field, were the Olympic Rings, made of wood grown from trees that were planted by athletes of the participated countries who competed in the 1964 Tokyo Games.
Turkey's journey in Tokyo will start on Saturday with the participation of 16 athletes.
The Olympics were officially opened by Japanese Emperor Naruhito: "I declare open the Games of Tokyo," he said.
The postponed 2020 Olympics will end on Aug. 8./aa
Read 2617 times
More...
Olympics committee chief seeks end to spectator ban
Staff
July 17, 2021
The head of International Olympic Committee (IOC) has asked the Japanese prime minister to allow fans attending the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics if the COVID-19 situation improves, Kyodo News reported on Thursday.
The Japanese news outlet said the request by Thomas Bach was made to Yoshihide Suga in a meeting on Wednesday.
Faced with rising cases and deaths, authorities have imposed a state of emergency in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, disallowing spectators from venues during the Olympics scheduled for July 23 to Aug. 8.
According to a source quoted in the story, Suga told Bach that organizing bodies of Olympics and Paralympics will review the spectator policy if there is a significant change in the situation.
Earlier, the IOC announced new measures to contain the spread of coronavirus during victory ceremonies.
While athletes, presenters, and volunteers will wear masks at all times; trays, including medals and gifts, will be put on a table or stand and presenters will carry them to the athletes. Athletes will take the medals and gifts from the trays, without any contact with the presenters. Group photos will also not be allowed on the podiums./aa
Read 1991 times
Foreign students who studied in Turkey and graduated in 2021 from the "Turkiye Scholarships" program provided by the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) expressed gratitude to Anadolu Agency for the program.
“If YTB had not given us this opportunity, perhaps we would not have had the opportunity to do a doctorate as the situation in Palestine is difficult,” said Issa M. A. Baraijia, a Palestinian who graduated from Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University’s Department of Contemporary History postgraduate program. “There are no PhD programs in the West Bank.”
“I think this program is good for international cooperation. Graduates of this program will contribute to relations between countries,” said Indonesian Haryono Haryono, a graduate from the Department of Business Administration at Selcuk University in central Konya province.
Higher education scholarship programs provided by Turkey were branded "Turkiye Scholarships" in 2012.
More than 165,000 applications from 178 countries were received in 2021.
Nearly 15,000 international students are currently studying in Turkey as part of the Turkiye Scholarships program, while nearly 3,000 students from 104 countries graduated in 2021.
International students who graduated attended the "10th International Student Graduation Ceremony and 2020 Turkey Alumni Awards" ceremony in Ankara./aa
Read 1974 times
Syrian refugee and Olympic swimmer Yusra Mardini is set to compete for the Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, with the multi-sport event to begin on July 23.
"They don't share a nation, or a language. But they choose to keep their dreams alive. Yusra Mardini is a part of the Tokyo 2020 IOC Refugee Olympic Team," said the official Instagram account for the Olympics.
"Each of us has a different story. But there is something we all have in common: We chose to keep our dreams alive," she said in a video.
"We carried them with us. Across oceans and deserts and cities. We brought them together. To form a team greater than ourselves. One that defies borders and limits. A team that belongs to everyone. Because the starting line doesn't care who we are. Only that we'll face it, together," the 23-year-old added.
Mardini fled from war-torn Syria in 2015, four years after the civil war had begun.
Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN estimates.
Mardini took refuge in Turkey but then faced a perilous sea crossing to Greece on a small boat.
During the journey on the Aegean Sea, the dinghy's engine stopped working and the boat took on water. Mardini and her sister Sarah jumped into the water to push and drag the boat carrying 20 people to the Greek island of Lesbos.
They spent three hours in the water. Then they traveled through Europe to Germany, where they live.
The UN appointed Yusra as the Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in 2017.
Mardini was previously named to compete for the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, widely known as Rio 2016.
There will be 29 athletes -- including Mardini --who will compete for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Refugee Olympic Team in Tokyo and represent 12 sporting branches including athletics, badminton, boxing, canoeing, cycling, judo, karate, taekwondo, shooting, swimming, weightlifting and wrestling.
They were named by the IOC ahead of the Summer Olympic Games in the Japanese capital./aa
Read 1648 times
Turkish universities to be promoted in online fair
Staff
July 08, 2021
A virtual fair to promote Turkish universities will be held on July 27-29, the head of Turkey’s Council of Higher Education (YOK) announced on Wednesday.
The second Study in Turkey YOK Virtual Fair 2021 will open its doors online, Yekta Sarac tweeted. The first edition was also held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“International students who want to study in Turkey will be able to get information on many subjects including admission conditions, quotas, programs, scholarships, accommodation, etc,” Sarac said.
“Our virtual fairs play an important role in ensuring the participation of more international students in our higher education system in our country, where more than 200,000 international students from 182 countries are educated."
Last year, in an opinion piece, Sarac wrote: “Today a total of 7.5 million students are studying in 207 universities in Turkey, making it the second-largest country of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) after Russia.”/aa
Read 1661 times
