FNC members took their chance yesterday to ask the Chairman of the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments about the possibility of making Friday sermons more topical and more pertinent to the UAE.
Sultan Al Shamsi (Ajman) asked: "Why can't the subjects of the Friday sermons revolve around the current reality and situation locally and internationally?"
Dr Hamdan Al Mazrouei, the authority's chairman, explained the unified Friday sermons, which are read at all mosques around the country, already took four main points into account: issues that help UAE policies, deal with local, religious, and international events, highlight ministry and government departments' concerns, and discuss timely topics.
Topics covered in the past had included traffic safety, diabetes awareness, Earth day, and human-rights day, he said.
"The authority has prepared special sermons on issues that has affected everyone such as the assault on Gaza and Palestine, and swine flu."
After the discovery of a mother who kept her psychologically disturbed son locked up in his own home for 12 years, a sermon addressed the issue of family violence.
Still, Mr Al Shamsi asked for more relevant topics, "like divorce and illnesses", as well as security issues such as "respect for the leaders and deterring people from sedition".
Dr Al Mazrouei thanked the FNC for their points and said he would present them to his colleagues.
"We would like to hear more from the public, and appreciate if they contact us directly with their thoughts," he added.
tsubaihi@thenational.ae
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”