Headlines:

• Emir of Qatar Buys Six Greek Islands for £7m and Plans More Investments While Muslims Go Hungry
• Rulers of Bahrain and UAE Give Money to British Army
• Russia Plans to Offer Islamic Studies To Counter Extremism
• NATO, Karzai Call on Pakistan To Do More Against Terrorism

Details:

Emir of Qatar Buys Six Greek Islands for £7m and Plans More Investments While Muslims Go Hungry:

The Emir of Qatar has bought six Greek islands in a deal worth at least £7.22million. The islands are part of a small archipelago known as the Echinades, a couple of miles from Ithaca, a famous site in Homer's Odyssey. They first caught the eye of the Emir, 56-year-old Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, when he moored his super-yacht nearby whilst on holiday four years ago. The £4.2million deal for Oxia, the largest of the islands at 1,200 acres, was agreed last year but had been held up by delays in obtaining land use permits from Greek forestry officials, according to the Financial Times. Ithaca's Greek-American mayor, Ioannis Kassianos, said: "When you buy an island, even if you are the emir of Qatar, it takes a year and a half for all the paperwork to go through." The Emir had pledged to invest up to 5 billion euros in Greece's transport and infrastructure when it was hit by the economic crisis three years ago. He had been put off by Greece's red tape and inefficiency but relations have improved, with Qatar now bidding to redevelop the Hellenikon Airport site near Athens. If the deal goes through, the airport could serve as an international hub for Qatar Airways. Qatar may also bid for the Astir Palace hotel, a beachfront hotel near Athens that is popular with Arab tourists. Despite Greece's extensive privatisation programme, it has been suggested that Greece should be prepared to sell off even more of its assets to help reduce its debt obligations to other countries.

Rulers of Bahrain and UAE Give Money to the British Army:

Britain's top military academy, Sandhurst, has come under fire for renaming a sports hall commemorating a First World War battle after the King of Bahrain. The Mons Hall - named after the 1914 battle where thousands died - will have its name changed to honour the Bahraini monarch who has given millions in funding to the Army's officer training college. The building will now be called King Hamad Hall and will reopen next month after being refurbished thanks to a £3 million donation from the king, who is the patron of the Sandhurst Foundation but is known for brutally repressing demonstrators at home. Sandhurst has also accepted a £15 million donation from the United Arab Emirates to build a new accommodation block, raising questions about the college's links with authoritarian Gulf states accused of human rights abuses.

Russia plans to Offer Islamic Studies to Counter Extremism:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the government will hammer out a single Bachelor's and Master's degree program on Islam study within three months. Supporters say the move would help remove problems facing Russians studying Islam. There are no academic institutions or universities for Russians interested in studying Islam. Currently, Russians seeking to study Islam are trained at secular and religious educational institutions. "What we currently see in Russia are Islamic secondary schools, or madrasahs, rather than academies or universities, where students should get more knowledge regarding theological subjects, Muslim law and history," said Denga Khalidov, Head of the Center for Islam Ethnopolitics Studies in Moscow. The Russian Federation is home to some 23 million Muslims in the north of the Caucasus and southern republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. Islam is Russia's second-largest religion representing roughly 15 percent of its 145 million predominantly Orthodox population. But some experts see the program as a government attempt to fight religious extremism in Russia. "Many of those who graduate from Islamic universities in Saudi Arabia and Egypt face problems," Moscow-based Islam expert Georgy Engelgardt said. He said graduates from foreign countries get radical ideas "that are out of line with forms of religions adopted on Russian territory". "Consequently, they seek to give their disciples a vision of the religion and its political supplements that they studied in other countries," he said. "This leads to radicalization of certain groups of believers and may culminate in armed clashes, something that is currently in place in North Caucasus and the Volga Region in Russia. The authorities have already admitted that this problem poses a threat."

NATO, Karzai Call on Pakistan To Do More Against Terrorism:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen have called on Pakistan to do more to combat terrorism and condemned statements made last week by a leading Pakistan cleric apparently endorsing suicide attacks in Afghanistan. This latest spat between the neighbouring countries could set back joint efforts to promote peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. Karzai criticized the comments, which were made on Afghan television by a prominent Pakistan cleric who had been part of efforts by religious leaders in the two countries to bring peace to Afghanistan, and are likely to sour an already strained relationship between the two countries. Speaking at a press conference, Karzai said the statements made by Pakistan cleric Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi of the All Pakistan Ulema Council prove Islamabad supports suicide attacks as a tool of the Taliban's fight in Afghanistan. We have always known that they supported suicide attacks, Karzai said, but now we have heard this directly from them. We hope that they [Pakistan] will be wise enough to take steps to change this situation. NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, speaking at the same news conference, also condemned any suggestion that suicide attacks could be a legitimate tool of war. He urged the Pakistani government and military to step up their fight against terrorism and extremism. "And I think the time has come for the Pakistani leadership - the military leadership as well as the political leadership - to realize that it is in their self-interest to ensure a peaceful development in Afghanistan," said Rasmussen.

Abu Hashim