Editorial

Latheef Farook began his journalistic career with the now  defunct Independent Newspapers in 1966 before joining the Lake House Group  in 1971  where he worked as  a staff  reporter for the  Ceylon Daily News and the evening Ceylon  Observer covering   local politics, foreign affairs ,finance and  economics.

He doubled as the Colombo correspondent for several Middle  Eastern news agencies following local response to developments in the region. He contributed regular feature articles on Third World economic development   on topics relating to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, General Agreement on Trade and Tariff, the Non Aligned Movement and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

In 1976 covered the Non-Aligned Summit of Third World leaders hosted by Sri Lanka and in the same year the Ceylon Daily News nominated him for the United Nations sponsored “Dag Hammarskjöld” scholarship for Third World journalists.

In March 1979,  Farook was commissioned to round up a team of  Sri Lankan journalists to relaunch the Gulf News. A year later he joined the staff of the Khaleej Times  where  he covered a diverse fields of topics in the United Arab Emirates for  seven years.

He rejoined the Gulf News in 1987 and worked in the Supplements Section and in Al Ain before assuming responsibilities as the Gulf News Bureau Chief in Bahrain covering the entire spectrum of activities in the region including the East Coast of Saudi Arabia   besides extensively interviewing visiting world leaders.

In May 2002 he was transferred to Dubai as Head of the Special Reports.   He left the organization in January 2003 to launch the South Asia News Agency in Colombo which supplies feature articles on  Sri Lanka   aimed mainly at the island’s expatriates  abroad.

Asiff Hussein is a Freelance Writer and Author of a number of publications in the fields of Ethnology, Sociology, Linguistics and Islam. He is a Director of the Centre for Islamic Studies spearheading its Media Outreach Program and is Editor of Islamic Finance Today, a magazine exclusively dedicated to the promotion of ethical interest-free banking and finance.
 
Hussein is the author of a number of publications including Sarandib. An Ethnological Study of the Muslims of Sri Lanka (Feb & July 2007 and September 2011), Zeylanica, a Study of the Peoples and Languages of Sri Lanka (September 2009 & September 2014), Ivilly Pevilly. The Gastronome’s Guide to the Culinary History & Heritage of Sri Lanka (2012); Tolerance in Islam (2012) and Caste in Sri Lanka. From Ancient Times to the Present Day (2013) He has also co-authored Memons of Sri Lanka. Men, Memoirs, Milestones with Hameed Kareem (2006) and co-edited The Muslim Heritage of Eastern Sri Lanka with S.H.M.Jameel (2011). A Sinhala translation of his book on Tolerance in Islam Islamaya Desana Agamika Ivasima was published in 2014. He has also contributed to Business Today, Explore Sri Lanka, the Souvenirs of the Moors Islamic Cultural Home and Hamdard Islamicus Journal of Studies and Research in Islam.
 
Hussein holds a B.A. Degree in Social Sciences from the Open University of Sri Lanka, a Post-graduate Diploma in Archaeology from the University of Kelaniya and a Diploma in Journalism from the Aquinas College of Higher Studies, Sri Lanka. He is also among the Sri Lankan Alumni of the International Visitor Leadership Program organised by the US State Department, having participated in an IVLP Programme on Religion and Social Justice in America on a tour that covered Washington, Huntsville, Birmingham, Santa Fe and San Francisco from June 28th to July 16th 2010.