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Mohammed Al-Issa Receives Bridge Builder Award

Muhammed Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League, at the Vatican on Sept. 20, 2017. (AP)
Muhammed Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League, at the Vatican on Sept. 20, 2017. (AP)
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Mohammed Al-Issa Receives Bridge Builder Award

Muhammed Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League, at the Vatican on Sept. 20, 2017. (AP)
Muhammed Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League, at the Vatican on Sept. 20, 2017. (AP)

Dr. Mohammed Bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League (MWL) and chairman of the Muslim Scholars Association, has received the Norwegian Bridge Builder Award.

The Oslo-based award committee said Al-Issa has made exceptional efforts to build bridges between people with different religious and cultural backgrounds, and described him as "a leading global force for peace and cooperation between nations and religions, and combating extremist ideologies."

The award distribution ceremony was held at Oslo's Opera Hall, in the presence of a large number of international figures, including religious leaders, scholars, heads of major international organizations, and a wide spectrum of Norwegian political, religious and community leaders including former Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik.

Al-Issa received a cable of congratulations from a number of European officials, saying that he is a clear and distinct voice for peace and cooperation between nations and religions. "This accolade is a recognition and encouragement to continue his great efforts in promoting tolerance, respect and love," they added.

In his speech after receiving the award, Al-Issa said that "building bridges … are the gateway to understanding and cooperation, leading to the peace of our world and the harmony of our societies around the world.”

On conflicts resulting from religious, cultural, political and other divides, Al-Issa said: "Distancing ourselves from each other builds walls of fear, suspicion and misunderstanding. This will raise anxiety, and hatred, and then lead to conflicts, and this has happened around the world unfortunately."

Al-Issa called upon the followers of religions and civilizations to join forces, discarding accusations and combating hate speech and acts of violence and terrorism.

"Nothing is better than recognizing that the difference among humans is a natural aspect of our life, and that hatred and exclusion based on cultural, religious, or political differences cannot be justified."

"Sincere love in its full sense is the greatest peacemaker, and teaching it is the responsibility of the family and education, from childhood to the early stages of youth. The educational process needs to focus on teaching shared values in an interactive way. The world learned how to make weapons of mass destruction but did not learn values," he concluded.

In past editions, the Bridge Builder Award was introduced to many prominent international figures including former US President Barack Obama, King of Norway, and the current head of the World Health Organization. The annual ceremony is attended by the royal family in Norway, prime minister, and a number of ministers and members of parliament.

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$344 for a Coffee? Scottish Farm is Selling UK's Most Expensive Cup

This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)
This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)
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$344 for a Coffee? Scottish Farm is Selling UK's Most Expensive Cup

This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)
This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)

It's an enormous price to pay for a little cup of coffee, but the man behind the pitch promises it won't leave a bitter taste behind as it comes with the sweetner of a share of a dairy farm.
A Scottish dairy is offering what it bills as the UK's most expensive cup o' joe: 272 British pounds ($344) for a flat white — a double shot of espresso topped with a layer of steamed milk and a fleeting work of foam art, The Associated Press reported.
The costly cup is actually a perk for purchasing shares in Mossgiel Organic Dairy's crowdfunding campaign to enlarge its sustainable operation and produce more milk. Investors who buy 34 shares in the farm get a certificate for a flat white that can be redeemed starting this weekend at one of 13 coffee shops in Scotland that use the dairy's milk.
“This coffee costs nearly 80 times the price of an average flat white in the UK — but it’s much more than just a lovely drink,” said owner Bryce Cunningham. "We know it sounds crazy, but when you break it down, it’s a pretty good deal. How much is the future of farming worth?”
The price tops the eye-watering 265 pounds that Shot London, a coffee bar in the posh Mayfair and Marylebone neighborhoods, charged for a flat white made with rare beans from Okinawa, Japan. The Telegraph reported in April that it was the most expensive coffee in Britain.
Before launching the coffee promotion, Cunningham had already raised more than a third of the 300,000 pounds he is seeking from small investors as he tries to get a 900,000 pound loan that will help him double operations and expand out of Scotland and as far as coffee shops in London.
Shareholders receive other rewards, too, such farm tours, milk delivery discounts and invites to special events. But investors are also given a standard warning that they could lose some or all of the money they invest — except for the coffee.
The tenant farm in Mauchline, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Glasgow, was worked in the 18th century by poet Robert Burns, who penned “Auld Lang Syne" and many other well-known works. Burns, who is considered the national poet of Scotland, wrote while working in the fields there for two years and his face graces each glass bottle of Mossgiel milk.
Cunningham, a former service manager for Mercedes-Benz, took over the operation in 2014 after his father and grandfather died in 2014 from terminal illnesses.
The collapse of milk prices that year and other problems forced him to sell off most of the herd and reinvent the business as an organic farm. He uses a process to “brew” the milk, instead of pasteurize it, that he said gives it the creamer taste and texture of raw milk without the health risks.
Todd Whiteford, one of the owners of The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow that is serving the costly cups, said they’ve been using Mossgiel's milk for several years. Despite “outrageous offers" from competitors to switch, he said other milk producers can't match the quality and consistency that makes for “rounder, smoother and sweeter” cappuccinos, lattes and flat whites — and better coffee art.
“Theirs is the best. I’ll argue with anyone about that,” Whiteford said.
Anyone who splashes out to buy a Mossgiel coffee, though, will be getting the same cup other Coffee Cartel customers can purchase for 3.10 pounds. But Cunningham says there will be a taste of virtue with every posh cup.