News.Scotland.Org

Edinburgh attracts thousands of arts lovers from all around the world for its renowned festivals on every August. But this September is dedicated to rugby fans who gathered in large number to witness the Rugby World Cup-2007. With the home team continuing its best performance and moving towards the third successive victory, it is a real time for celebration in Scotland. In the first match Scotland beat Portugal and in the second one they beat Romania, both with a clean dominance. With these sweeping victories the Scottish team proved their competence and ability to win this world cup.

Scotland scored 56-10 against Portugal and in the second match they improved their previous performance without any loopholes and proved their dominance right from the beginning by scoring 42-0 against Romania. The highlight of this match is the hat-trick scored by Hogg, which propels the score board to tick fast. The defence of the Scottish team is worth a special mention which restricted the Romanian team to move forward to score points. Even though it is a slow victory, considering the tactics and the team work this victory deserves an appreciation.

In the first match Romania lose against Italy by a four point margin, but this time they cannot make the score board tick at least once in their favour. The coach of the Scottish team, Frank Hadden, Will be happy with another five points but he has to carve out a perfect team which could retain the winning streak going. On 23^rd September, Scotland team will face the All Black, New Zealand team in Edinburgh. The only matter of concern is the arm injury of Euan Murray, who had been helped from the field in the final quarter of the match against Romania.

Even though the seating capacity of the Murray field Stadium is 67,500 the crowd turn over were only 31,000 in the match against Scotland and Romania. As the home team is continuing its winning streak the crowd turn over is expected to increase in the oncoming match between Scotland and New Zealand, Which is scheduled on 23^rd September.

“Atif is innocent, he is not a terrorist he is just a young muslim”, said this father talking to the media. The distressed family of Mohammed Atif Siddique, a Scottish student who was convicted for al-Qaeda terrorist offence states that there son has fallen prey of sheer mis-interpretation. They told that Atif embraced a strict Islamic way of life which made great differences with the family leading to his ill-fate.

The family said Atif was like any other Muslim boy just he had a quest for al-Queda and the so called war on terror. He had a strong desire to do an in-depth study of al-Queda, and nothing more than this. For this mistake he was convicted, his actions were not strange pointing towards any terrorist intentions; thousands of people also do such acts.

Giving his insight to the incident, Mohammed Siddique the father of Atif says, my son is the first person to be convicted under the new terror laws in Scotland, if this is what people have to face then it will curb the civil liberties. The grief sticken father in a message to the parents tell’s that “all parents should stop their children going on the internet or in case they will end up in jail.

He further added “The sad thing is why our young people shouldn’t be able to find out what is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan? Does it mean every child that goes on to a website is considered to be a terrorist? Thousands of young people in the Muslim community will have accessed the same material.”

On the part of Atif, he thought its his right to know what’s going on with Muslims as this could also happen to him. There were few questions haunting his mind for which he needed answers. His questions were the Taleban encouraging people to carry out suicide bombings was all that justified. Many more such questions were there in his mind.

In the past two years Atif had some hard times and was reported to be eloped from home on two occasions after some differences with family. At that time he developed some contacts with some other people from England. Since then he was under doubt. Now his case is under trial and time will tell what will be his fate.