Dutch government now bans khat (miraa)

 

The Dutch government has banned the use of khat, a leaf native to East Africa chewed for its stimulant properties mainly by the Netherlands’ sizeable Somali community.

“The drug khat is banned,” the Dutch Immigration, Health and Justice departments said in a joint statement.
Khat is grown in the Horn of Africa and has for centuries been chewed by users in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen.

“The problem lies especially within the Somali community, which is much larger than the Kenyan or Yemeni communities within our country,” immigration department spokesman Frank Wassenaar told AFP, adding there were about 27,000 Somalis living in the Netherlands.

“If taken in moderation there are no major problems, but an investigation showed it to be problematic among some 10 percent of khat users,” leading to health and social issues, added the statement.

An independent report commissioned by the Dutch government has cited noise, littering and groups of men who “roam the streets perceived as threatening”, as some of the effects.

With high unemployment and low education levels, the Dutch Somali community was “late” in terms of integration, the report said.

Imported legally via Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport four times a week, khat is distributed throughout the Netherlands but also in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, it added.
Around 843 tonnes of khat, worth a minimum 14 million euros passed through Schiphol in 2010, up from 714 tonnes in 2009 and 693 tonnes in 2008.

Britain and the Netherlands currently allow the import, trade and consumption of khat, according to a European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction letter of July last year entitled “Drugs in focus.”
Fifteen of the European Union’s 27 states and Norway list khat as an illegal narcotic, while in the other EU countries, the plant was not subjected to any controls, the EMCDDA letter said.

Posted in Health and Nutrition | Tagged ban, Dutch, govt, health, khat, miraa | 0 Response

The hidden effects of chewing miraa

As a section of the Kenyan population take up spiked drinks such as Yokozuna, to a tragic end, others are seeking a less potent kind of high, khat – more commonly known as Miraa.

For several years now the number of cars with loud music and tinted windows that are parked at select petrol stations in the country is growing, to the point that visitors to mini-shops at the station have no parking space.
Often with sleek rims, the cars’ occupants pose as they chew miraa stems in cocktail of either Big G (yes it still exists) or peanuts.


The revelers rarely take the khat with alcohol, as the latter is prohibited in the gas stations.

According to Wikipedia, Miraa contains the alkaloid called cathinone, an amphetamine-like stimulant which is said to cause excitement, loss of appetite, and euphoria. In 1980, the World Health Organization classified khat as a drug of abuse that can produce mild to moderate psychological dependence, albeit less than tobacco or alcohol.

Though popular in certain areas of the country, Kenya has Somalia to thank for the vast profits being raked in by the multi-million shilling cut-throat trade – the chief export of Meru County.

According to research, chewing miraa is the most prevalent form of drug abuse in Somalia.
Various medical reports have indicated that chewing Miraa leads to increased energy levels, alertness, confidence and mood elevation.

However, prolonged use has several side effects, such as insomnia, a condition that the users sometimes try to overcome with sedatives or alcohol.

A survey conducted by DARS and Synovate in Hargeisa in June found that the youth there are aware of the adverse effects of consuming the drug.

59 percent of those surveyed said chewing miraa leads to family problems while 58 percent felt it hinders personal development.

Consumers often divert income to purchase Miraa, neglecting their families in the process.
The withdrawal symptoms include lethargy, mild depression, slight trembling and recurrent bad dreams.
The study further says that, continued use may endanger health in that the resulting anorexia leads to malnutrition and increased susceptibility to infectious diseases.

The same story could be said for Kenya, if young people are not made aware of these side effects.
The miraa high takes hours to achieve and users stay with the buzz for several hours, making it extremely popular. Parents neglect cautioning their children about it because it seems like a lesser evil than tobacco or alcohol. However, reversing the side effects of the drug are much more taxing.

Other conditions that can be caused by miraa chewing are oral cancer, constipation and impotence. Do you know someone you can educate?

Somalia TT President meets Michaud, other members of U.S. Congress

Published Date Wednesday, 16 January 2013 01:30


Written by Staff Report

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, joined a bipartisan gathering of members of the U.S. Congress to welcome Somalia President Hassan Sheik Mohamud to the U.S. Capitol Tuesday, Michaud's office reported.

This was the newly elected Somalia President's first visit to the United States as President and first meeting with members of Congress, Michaud noted. In the meeting, he discussed the recent security gains and economic development in Mogadishu. Over the last several months, the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that the number of attacks on aid workers fell from 13 in October to four and five in November and December, a press release stated. The African Union Mission in Somalia has liberated

Mogadishu and other areas from Al-Shabaab, and more humanitarian relief is reaching those who desperately need it, Michaud's office reported.

In a BBC report, Mohamud is described as "a moderate Islamist."

"He has won respect for his work in civil society and education, being one of the founders of Mogadishu's Simad university, where he was a lecturer and served as its first dean for 10 years until he resigned to enter politics," the BBC reported.

Al-Shabab in Somalia: France signed intel agent hostage's "death warrant" with rescue attempt

MOGADISHU, Somalia

Somalia's al Qaeda-linked rebels said Wednesday that France signed the death warrant of a French intelligence agent when it launched a rescue operation last weekend that failed to bring him home.

The militant group al-Shabab has held the French agent, Denis Allex, since July 2009. Al-Shabab said in a lengthy statement Wednesday that the group decided to kill Allex in retaliation for the Friday-Saturday overnight operation. Two French soldiers and 17 Somalis were killed during the rescue attempt, French officials say.

France's defense minister has said Allex is likely already dead. Al-Shabab has said Allex was still alive after the rescue attempt.

  

Vague language from the Islamist extremists in Wednesday's statement does little to make things clear. Al-Shabab did not offer proof Allex is alive or say when he would be executed if he is still alive.

  

"With the rescue attempt, France has voluntarily signed Allex's death warrant," the statement said.

Adm. Edouard Guillaud, France's military chief of staff, said officials there believe al-Shabab's announcement is propaganda.

  

"We have had no indication since Friday night's raid that Denis Allex, since that's his name, on the fact that Denis Allex is alive," he told Europe 1. "We think that he is in all likelihood dead. ... It's a technique that they have already resorted to in other cases that didn't concern us."

Al-Shabab also said it had been willing to free Allex in exchange for "Muslim prisoners." It accused France of persecuting Muslims and pointed to a recently launched military operation by French forces against al Qaeda-linked extremists in Mali.

  

French troops go after Mali militants on the ground

Transported by helicopters, the French commandos attacked the al-Shabab position early Saturday in an attempt to free Allex. France's defense minister has said the government decided to stage the rescue a month ago, when Allex's location seemed to have settled down "in a spot accessible by the sea." U.S. military aircraft briefly entered Somali airspace to support the rescue operation, President Obama said Sunday, but did not use weapons. 

Fierce fighting broke out after the French troops landed. French officials said they counted 17 dead among the Islamists.

Al-Shabab once controlled all of south-central Somali, including the capital, Mogadishu. African Union troops pushed al-Shabab out of the capital in 2011, but the Islamist rebels still control wide swaths of rural southern Somalia.

© 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Somalia to Minnesota: One immigrant's perilous journey by land and sea

By Ibrahim Hirsi, TC Daily Planet

January 15, 2013

Abdullahi Elmi recently sat quietly at a Minneapolis coffee shop with a bright smile on his face. His eyes ran over the chatty young Somalis around him.

It was a weekday, and he expected them to be at work or in school. “What are they doing here?” asked astonished Elmi, who recently arrived in Minnesota through harrowing journeys on the deserted African borders and stormy seas.

If they came here through my route, they wouldn’t have wasted a second,” he said with the big smile now transformed to a loud laugh. “I would have been doing something useful with my time right now.”

Because of the protracted civil war in Somalia, Elmi’s dream of attending university faded when he graduated from a Mogadishu high school in 2006. Like many young Somalis his age, Elmi vowed to migrate to Europe for education and a better life.

For the first time, Elmi left Somalia in 2008 with a group of strangers, trusting his life with a smuggler to whom he gave $15 to get him to Djibouti, an East African country that borders Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

On top of an overcrowded pick-up truck, Elmi traveled for days on the dry and dusty land between Somalia and Djibouti with only a 5 kg container of water in his hand.

People were literally sitting on each other,” he said of the 25 passengers on the vehicle, which was supposed to hold 10 people. There was no space to breathe. And the driver was driving like he didn’t care about their safety.

If you’re weak, you could get thrown off from the car,” he added, “and the driver would keep driving.”

A car in which a friend of Elmi rode overturned on the way a month before Elmi’s trip, with 30 people killed, his friend told him. The rest didn’t get an emergency response for weeks.

They had no food or water,” Elmi said. “They had to drink their urine.”

Every year tens of thousands of people, mostly young, migrate through this route, drawn by the promise of a life of contentment in Europe, according to a recent study, “Boat Ride to Detention: Adult and Child Migrants in Malta,” by the Human Rights Watch.

Most of these migrants, like Elmi, travel with little or no information about what they will encounter during the trip as they go through the borders of Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan, which then connect to rickety timber boats in Libya with a dream to reach Europe.

Often times, however, they end up in indefinite detention in Malta, a tiny island in the Mediterranean between Libya and Italy, even though they don’t plan Malta as their destination — but aim for European countries, especially Italy, the study said.

All I wanted to do was leave Somalia,” said Elmi, who would end up in a Maltese detention center. “I would never have taken the trip had I known what I know now.”

In Djibouti, Elmi was introduced to another smuggler, who took him on the top of a Jeep that sped fast on the irregular and dangerous deserted ground between Djibouti and Eritrea. He was dropped about 70 miles away from the Eritrea border.

There is the border,” Elmi said the smuggler told him. “He gave me names of men [smugglers] in Eritrea.” Elmi walked across the border with no map or navigation system. No person or home was in sight, and no food or drinks were in his possession.

Elmi finally arrived in Emkulu Camp Eritrea. The camp, which welcomed the first wave of Somali refugees 12 years ago, hosts about 4,000 Somalis, according to a 2008 report by the International Organization for Migration. He stayed in Emkulu for 10 days before he transitioned to a Sudan refugee camp, Shagarab, with the help of smugglers.

Somaliland : President Silanyo signs into law the Controversial National Intelligence Bill

Somaliland President H.E Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud (Silanyo) has today issued a Presidential decree in which he signed the national Intelligence bill #Lr. 59/2012 into law.

President Silanyo signed the National Intelligence Bill into a law after the national assembly decision # Lr. GW/G/KF-19/581/2012 voted in favor of the national Intelligence act #Lr. 59/2012 Bill on the 27/12/2012,this in accordance with Act #90 and Act #70 of the national constitution.

The adaptation National Intelligence Bill heard earlier faced stiff opposition from a wide section of the society mainly because of a controversial clause which infringes on the freedom of speech.

In another development today President Silanyo issued another Presidential Decree in which he signed into a law, the health workers bill # Lr. 19/2001 which reforms the workings of health workers board this in accordance with the national assembly decision # Lr. GW/G/KF-19/582/2012 voted in favor of the Health workers board reform bill.

A year in Somaliland : What I’ve learned about water in Hargeisa

Water Deliveries by Donkeys 

I remember in Belfast the Christmas before last, when pipes froze and burst, water poured into streets, and many of us were without water for days, relying on bottled water that we had to collect from water stations.  Many people said at the time, and I was one, how it made them appreciate water was not to be taken for granted.   But it has taken living here and observing how people live in a country that experiences serious droughts for it to be brought home to me what a precious resource water is.

 For a start, the Horn of Africa is semi-arid, i.e. there is very little rain anyway. Most of Somaliland receives as little as 50 to 150 millimeters of rain annually.  Ireland’s annual rainfall is nearer 1000 mm a year (and more in Connemara!).  Adan (the driver with Nagaad and the source of much of my information) thinks it has got drier over the past few decades, and Somaliland is slowly becoming more like a desert.  When the rain does come, in April and May, its torrential, but I haven’t experienced any yet and wonder about driving on these now dusty dirt roads after torrential rain! On the way to and from work every day, we cross a bridge over what looks like a dried up riverbed, between 50 and 100 yards wide.  In fact it’s a flood runoff for the rains when they do come. The rain has been known to sweep away the temporary shelters that internally displaced people (IDPs) live in, and the downpours can be extremely dangerous.  They say this area after a rainfall will be a raging torrent of water and then, within hours, the water has disappeared.

The main sources of water in rural areas of Somaliland are the privately owned Barkeds (cemented water catchments), manually dug shallow wells and communal stock watering ponds.  All of these sources of water depend on a harvest of seasonal rainfall, which has been worsening year by year.  While in urban areas, groundwater is the main source of water for human and livestock consumption (the ubiquitous goats, and not forgetting the urban cattle that roam the streets).  I suppose no one worries about the camels!

Because of recurrent drought, there has been a huge population shift to Hargeisa and other urban areas from rural areas, and from areas where people have been internally displaced by the upheavals of war.  The steady increase in settlements of internally displaced people on the outskirts of the city makes it hard to keep track of population numbers, and the situation is growing beyond control.  Tensions between the IDP communities and the host communities have increased, particularly because of the water shortage.

The water infrastructure in Hargeisa was designed and built in the 1940s for a population of 150,000 people, relying on deep bore wells as major sources of water.  A survey of 127 government owned deep bore wells and other sources of water (not just in Hargeisa) were completed recently, and only about 40 percent of all existing wells are operational.  Adan complained that 60% of the national budget goes on security and maintaining the military, with no development strategy to address the water infrastructure, although I have read in the papers that there are plans to dig more wells in Hargeisa, funded by the EU.

But the fact is at least 45% of Hargeisa’s population of 1.2 million has no direct access to water at all.  So how do they manage?

Tankers fetch water daily from wells in two villages 30 or 40 kilometres outside Hargeisa and deliver it to houses and hotels (including the Ambassador) in the city and it is pumped into tanks. Alanye, a board member of Nagaad, explained to me that he and his family are dependent on a truck delivering water every week.  He pays $7 for five barrels of water, which last his family one week.  But his family is small, him and his wife, and two or three relatives.  In Somaliland, extended families are the norm, so it would be usual, he told me, for 12 people to share a household.  For most households then five barrels would only last 3-4 days.  Then there are sanitation issues because the water comes untreated from the wells.  The problem with water quality is pertinent.  Most of these families use this water for drinking, cooking and washing as well.  No water purification and treatment of water takes place here. Well owners wait for the wells to become full and once water comes to the surface they dip long tubes that take water to the trucks.

The water used for tea and coffee in Nagaad is the colour of weak tea; I have gone without a mid-morning drink since my first taste.

Many people cannot buy water from truck owners as they don’t have tanks. They rely on the donkey deliveries, pulling small tanks of water and delivering to people’s houses and small shops.

People bring their yellow plastic cans to be filled.  It’s women and children who fetch the water, including at night when it’s cooler and I’ve frequently seen teenage girls struggling to carry large yellow plastic canisters, women pushing wheelbarrows with several containers, and small children pulling containers along the road with string, making a game of it.

Note. Most of the photos here, are from Afrikan Sarvi online, a Horn of Africa Journal, plus some of the info.

Source: Joanna McMinn Blogspot

Abwaan Hadraawi oo ka Waramay Shaqsiyadii Marxuum Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd Eebe Naxariistiisa Jano Haka Waraabiyee.

Abwaan Maxamed Ibraahim Hadraawi

"waxaanu ummadda u ahaa iftiin iyo cadceed oo waxa uu ahaa nin aragti fog oo aqoonyahan ah, isla markaana bulshada noocwal oo ay tahay u jajaban oo hadii Ilaahay ka dhigo gacan leh"

Abwaan Maxamed Ibraahim Hadraawi oo waraysi uu siiyay Wargayska Haatuf waxa uu kaga hadlay Shaqsiyadii iyo Sifooyinkii uu lahaa Guddoomiyihii Baanka dhexe ee Djibouti Marxuum Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd oo maalintii Jimcihii ku geeriyooday Magaalada Nairobi ee xarunta dalka Kenya, isla markaana tacsi u diraya Shucuubta labada dal ee Djibouti iyo Somaliland, waxa uu hadalkiisa ku bilaabay “Alle ha u naxariistii Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd saaxiib ayaanu ahayn oo waxa uu ahaa nin lagu soo hirto oo raganimadiisa iyo waxtarkiisa aan la malayn karin, waxaanu ummadda u ahaa iftiin iyo cadceed oo waxa uu ahaa nin aragti fog oo aqoonyahan ah, isla markaana bulshada noocwal oo ay tahay u jajaban oo hadii Ilaahay ka dhigo gacan leh. Aniga oo aan caawa halkan ku dhamaynkaraynin raganimada iyo shaqsiyadii fiicnayd ee Alle ha u naxariistee Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd”

Isagoo hadalkiisa sii wata Hadraawi waxa uu intaa ku daray “waxaan leeyahay geeridu waa xaq ee Ilaahay ha u naxariista oo Janooyinkiisa ha ka waraabiyo isagaa awood lehe. Shaqsiyadiisa iyo miisaanka uu ummada ku lahaa Marxuum Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd waxa aad ka garankartaa sidii markii geeridiisa la soo sheegay looga dareemay gayiga Soomaalida oo dhan laga oogsaday, isla markaan dadku ay aad uga naxeen oo ay bulshadu cadaysay shaqsiyadiisa dhabta  ah iyo qofkii uu ahaa Alle ha u naxariistee.

Abwaan Hadraawi waxa uu hadalkiisa ku soo gabogabeeyay “Mida kale Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd waxa uu ka tagay reer oo ummad dhan ayuu ka baxay Alle qabriga ha u nuuriyee, waxaanan jeclahay inaad tacsi iga gaadhsiisaan oo aad kaw ka dhigtaan qoyskii uu ka baxay, laba waxaan Ilaahay ka baryayaa inuu ina siiyo badelkii Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd. Mida kale geeridu waa xaq oo xaqii ayaa helay Marxuum Jaamac laakiin waxa inala gudboon inaynu u ducayno oo aynu xusno sidaan filayo-na aaskiisii xalay ayuu dhacay oo waanan ka xumahay inaan goobtaas ka maqnaado, waxaanan hadalkayga ku soo koobayaa Alle ha u naxariistee Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd waxaynu ku xasuusan doonaa raganimadii iyo sifooyinkii wanaagsanaa ee uu lahaa”.

U.S. supported France's failed hostage rescue in Somalia

By CNN Staff

January 14, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• President Obama details U.S. military involvement in a hostage rescue in Somalia;
• French forces failed to free an intelligence agent held by an al Qaeda-linked group;
• French officials say 1 soldier died, 1 is missing, and the hostage is believed dead;
• U.S. aircraft were in Somali airspace but didn't fire, Obama told Congressional leaders.

An undated TV grab shows Denis Allex, a French hostage allegedly held -- and possibly killed -- by Somali militants.

(CNN) -- U.S. troops lent "limited technical support" in France's bloody and unsuccessful bid in Somalia to rescue an intelligence agent who'd been held hostage for years, President Barack Obama said Sunday.

Obama detailed the U.S. military involvement in the Friday night mission in a letter sent to the leaders of the nation's two legislative chambers. The letter was released publicly as well.

Are you there? Send your photo, videos, but please stay safe.

While U.S. forces "provided limited technical support," they "took no direct part in the assault on the compound where it was believed the French citizen was being held hostage," the president explained.

In addition, U.S. military aircraft were available but were not used.

"United States combat aircraft briefly entered Somali airspace to support the rescue operation, if needed," the president wrote. "These aircraft did not employ weapons during the operation."

French militant operations in Africa

Obama said he directed the U.S. troops' involvement in the operation "in furtherance of U.S. national security interests, and pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as commander in chief and chief executive."

By 8 p.m., all U.S. forces were out of Somalia.

The moves came after French forces engaged in a fierce gunbattle with militants in their attempt to rescue hostage Denis Allex, who was a member of the DGSE, France's equivalent of the CIA and a part of its defense ministry.

The skirmish in Bulo Marer, about 75 miles northwest of the capital Mogadishu, ended with a French soldier and 17 Islamist fighters dead, according to the French Defense Ministry. Another French soldier is missing.

French bid to rescue hostage fails

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Paris on Saturday that "everything leads us to believe that Denis Allex was gunned down by his captors." French President Francois Hollande, meanwhile, lamented the "sacrifice" of the two French soldiers and "maybe the assassination" of the hostage.

But the al-Shabaab militia, which is affiliated with al Qaeda, claimed Allex is unharmed and being held in a new location. The group said in a statement that they'll decide the hostage's fate in the next two days.

Allex was abducted on July 14, 2009, while on a mission in Mogadishu in support of the transitional Somali government, the French Defense Ministry said. French media reports suggest that Denis Allex is a pseudonym for the military serviceman.

French officials said they launched the rescue attempt after the terror group failed to negotiate for the hostage's release for years while holding him in inhumane conditions.

The U.S. military has been involved in Somalia before, notably in the ill-fated 1993 Battle of Mogadishu that ended with 18 American soldiers killed.

U.S. forces were in Somalia to try to capture powerful Somali warlord Mohammed Aidid from his stronghold in the war-torn capital and take him to a ship anchored off the nearby coast. But by the end of the 16-hour battle in which commandos tried to seize several of Aidid's top lieutenants, 18 elite Army Rangers and hundreds of Somalis lay dead in the streets of Mogadishu.

The movie inspired the best-selling book "Black Hawk Down" by Mark Bowden and an eponymous, Oscar Award-winning movie directed by Ridley Scott.

Fourteen years later, the U.S. military re-emerged in Somalia by conducting airstrikes targeting al Qaeda-linked operatives in southern Somalia. Other strikes followed, including one in 2008 that killed an al-Shabaab leader and several other senior leaders of his group, according to local officials.

BOGA TACSIDA MARXUUN JAMA MOHAMOUD HAID

TACSI KU SOCOTA MADAXWAYNAHA JAMHUURIYADA JABUUTI, MUD. ISMAIL OMAR GAULLEH, MARWADIISA MARWO KHADRA MOHAMOUD HAID IYO GUUD AHAAN SHACABKA JAMHUURIYADA JABUUTI. 

Anigoo ku hadlaya magaca dhamaan Maamulka iyo xubnaha Gudiga Ilaalada Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika ee HORN WATCH guud ahaan Shacabka Jamhuuriyada Jabuuti waxanu la qaybsanaynaa tiiraanyada geerida naxdinta leh ee ku timid Gudoomiyihii Baanka Dhexe ee Dalka Djibouti Jama Mohamoud Haid.

EEBE KOREEYE WAXANU KA BARYAYNAA IN UU NAXARIISTIISA JANO KA WARAABIYO MARXUUNKA ADOON WANAAGSAN OO QARANKIISA U ADEEGA OO DADKA BAAHAN WAX SIIYA AYUU AHAA EE EEBOW SADAQADII UU ADOOMAHAAGA SIINAYAY UGU NAXARIISO.

MADAXWAYNAHA JAMHUURIYADA JABUUTI MUDANE ISMAIL OMAR GEELEH IYO MARWADIISA KHADRA MOHAMOUD HAID IYO GUUD AHAAN SHACABKA JAMHUURIYADA JABUUTI WAXANU LEENAHAY SAMIR IYO IIMAAN EEBE HA IDINKA SIIYO

TACSIDAN MID LA MID AH WAXANU U DIRAYNAA OORADII UU KA TAGAY MARXUUNKU, CARUURTIISII WALAALADII, QARAABADIISII IYO DHAMAAN SHAQAALIHII BANIGAGA DHEXE EE JAMHUURIYADA JABUUTI

WAXANU ILAAHAY KA TUUGAYNAA IN UU JANADII KA WARAABIYO MARXUUNKA

INAA LILAAHI WA INAA ILAAHU RAAJUCUUN

AAAMIIN AAAMIN AAAAMIN AAAMIN AAAAMIN AAAMIN

Suleiman Ismail Bolalah
Gud. Gudida Ilaalada Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika (HORN-WATCH)

Coca-Cola Recipe Leaked: Alcohol and Anti-Muslim messages

BOSTON — Coca-Cola’s tightly guarded 125-year-old recipe was revealed last week by This American Life, a public radio show based in New York city.

“We think we may have found the original recipe for Coca Cola…and I am not kidding!” host Ira Glass says with excitement. He continues “I am not kidding. One of the most famously guarded trade secrets on the planet– I have it right here and I am going to read it to you. I am going to read it to the world.”

To find the recipe, Ira Glass turned to Charles Salter, a columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Mr Salter originally discovered the Coke ingredients deep deep within the archives of the journal in 1979. Edition 18 of the Atlanta based journal contained a photo depicting a hand-written copy of John Pemberton’s original recipe in a leather-bound recipe book.

John Pemberton, an American pharmacist from Atlanta invented the Coca-Cola recipe in 1886 and has since stayed with family members and close friends. According to the This American Life, only two people know the recipe and they never travel on the same airliner. The radio also claims the recipe is “locked in a vault in Atlanta.”

Here are the recipe ingredients and we know it will definitely shock a lot of Muslims. For a long time, a large number of Muslims considered Coca Cola “Haram”; an Arabic word meaning forbidden. They claim if you hold a mirror next to the famous Coca-Cola trademark, it will reveals “La Mohammad. La Makkah” in Arabic, which literally means “No Mohammad. No Mecca.” This is considered anti-Islamic and a slander.

The Coca Cola company responded through their website: “This claim is not true. The Coca-Cola trademark was created in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, at a time and place where there was little knowledge of Arabic.

“The allegation has been brought before a number of senior Muslim clerics in the Middle East who researched it in detail and refuted the rumor outright.

“During the late 1990s, a special committee of authorities in Saudi Arabia, with representatives from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Trade, was formed to review the rumors against the Coca-Cola logo. The committee determined that there is no basis to these false allegations and that the Coca-Cola trademark does not connote anything defamatory to Islam.

“More recently, in May 2000, the Grand Mufti of Al-Azhar (the Islamic world’s foremost institute) Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel, said that “the trademark does not injure Islam or Muslims directly or indirectly.” Moreover, he stated that Islam is against ‘the propagation of empty rumors and intended lies that affect either public or private interests.’”

The ingredient includes alcohol and coca (plant that contains the cocaine), which are forbidden by Islamic law. Let’s see how they (Coca Cola Company) explain this one this time. According to Globes, a Muslim-Israeli has already filed a US$330 million class action suit against The Central Bottling Company Group Ltd. – Coca Cola’s Israel franchisee (see Israeli sues Coca Cola for containing alcohol).

Recipe:

1. Fluid extract of coca
2. Citric acid
3. Caffeine
4. Sugar
5. Water
6. Lime juice
7. Vanilla
8. Caramel
9. Alcohol
10. Orange oil
11. Lemon oil
12. Nutmeg oil
13. Coriander oil
14. Neroli oil
15. Cinnamon oil