Kuwaiti Advert Discriminates Against Muslim Applicants

DUBAI 6 May 2003 - A discriminatory job advertisement placed by a Kuwait company - Marafi - in Indian Newspapers is created new controversy about American influence in Kuwait. The company, which has a maintenance contract with the US Army has placed discriminatory advertisements in Indian newspapers, allegedly on behalf of the US Army. The advertisement is for recruitment of candidates for jobs at the US base in northern Kuwait. The advertisements, explicitly bar Muslim applicants from applying for various positions with the company. "For saudi and all other GCC countries 100s advertisements insisting that only Muslims have to apply appear almost every day . I was wondering how these people allow that in India. Now it is the first time that Muslims were descriminated," says a Kuwait Malayali.

According to US diplomats an investigation is under way. Hindustan Times of March 27 invited applications from "non-Muslims only" as lift operators, storekeepers, clerks, typists, security guards and drivers. According to the advertisement, besides being non-Muslims, the applicants should speak English and be under 35. It may be recalled that Gulf job advertisements carried specific remarks that certain religious groups are not recruited. On the eve of Babri Masjid demolition, Hindus were not recruited by Gulf based companies. "The Americans are strict that we should only process applications sent in by non-Muslims," Rehman Enterprises head Abdul Rehman was quoted as saying. "The response has been very bad. We are getting very few calls," Rehman was quoted as saying.

Gordon K.Duguid, press attache at the US Embassy in New Delhi has reportedly wrote a protest letter to the editor of the Hindustan Times. It quotes Executive Order 11246, according to which contractors for the US government cannot "discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin." The law, Gordon wrote, states categorically that any contractor guilty of discrimination is liable to have his contract "canceled, terminated or suspended in whole or in part and the contractor may be declared ineligible for further government contracts." The Statesman newspaper argued "that a young, unemployed, semi-skilled Indian Muslim reading this advertisement can only conclude that his neighborhood table-thumping mullah must be right, and that America is a proper target for Islamic anger." -keralamonitor.com

Bahraini woman raped by masked gang of three in the Car

Dubai : A Bahraini woman was kidnapped, beaten and repeatedly raped after being ambushed as she sat in her car with a male friend.Three masked Bahraini men in a stolen car attacked them as they sat at the seafront near Umm Al Hassam, at around8 .30pm on Saturday night, the Gulf Daily News reported. Even though sex related crime is rampant in the Gulf region, many instances are not reported in the media. The drove off with the woman in her own car, after dragging out her24 -year-old Bahraini friend out and beating him.The gang took the woman, of Isa Town, to an isolated area behind the Al Alawi Complex in Sanad, where they tore off her clothes, beat her and took turns in repeatedly raping he, the newspaper said. She was left battered and bleeding when they fled, but managed to contact her father for help, said sources.Her male friend, of Manama, had already called the police.

The three men were driving a stolen blue Toyota Cressida when they attacked the couple, which they left behind when they kidnapped the woman.Sources said the Cressida was reported stolen earlier in the evening from in front of the Ramz store, in Isa Town market.The car's owner, a Bahraini man from Riffa, told the GDN that his car was stolen at around8 pm. "I was doing some shopping and when I discovered the car stolen I immediately contacted the police," said the man.Police forensic exerts were later scouring the stolen car and the victim's car for fingerprints and other clues. keralamonitor.com