🇸🇾 Syria’s 3D-printed prosthetics

In a week when soccer fans from Bosnia, Morocco, and pretty much everywhere else voiced their support for Palestine at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Musletter can neither confirm nor deny that it had to Google ‘Where is Curaçao?’ and probably should have listened more closely in high school geography. As we start the Hijri new year, we ask Allah SWT to bring this year upon us with security and faith, safety and Islam, protection from shaytaan, and with the pleasure of the Most Merciful.

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🇸🇾 Self-taught 3D printing transforms Syrian prosthetics: While most of us struggle to follow a YouTube tutorial on setting up a router, Raafat Alothman was busy teaching himself a low-cost prosthetics system using 3D printing. Alothman was a physiotherapist during the Syrian civil war and saw terrible war-related injuries. Today, technicians at his center in Idlib use digital scans and off-the-shelf 3D printers to design and manufacture customized limbs for patients, many of them children. They do all this faster and at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. They have treated over 3,000 people, but sadly many more need help.

🌆🗽 From halal cart to airport concourse: The Halal Guys started out as a spot for New York’s hungry taxi drivers needing something quick (and halal) in between shifts. That was back in 1990 and was the brainchild of three Egyptian entrepreneurs. Since then, things have grown – the restaurant has locations coast to coast and just opened its first airport restaurant at JFK. This move positions ‘Authentic American Halal Food’ (their tag line) firmly within the mainstream, placing it alongside the kind of household names you spot as you race to your departure gate. So next time, arrive earlier and stop by for chicken, gyro platters, falafel, and their signature white sauce.

🇶🇦 Qatar opens up property investment and visas for foreigners: If you’re eyeing Qatar as a place to live, invest in, or run away to (hey, it’s none of our business), then the good news is that the country has updated the locations available to foreign property investors. Nine areas will be available for freehold ownership, with sixteen for usufruct leasehold. A $1 million investment grants you and your family permanent residency and all its benefits (free healthcare, public education, etc). Meanwhile, investments of $200,000+ get you real estate residency (valid as long as you retain the property). Also, Qatar does not add rental income tax or capital gains tax on property sales, and your transactions are all done through a protected digital system. One pretty sweet option is the Simaisma Resort and Beach Project set to become a major tourist and entertainment location. Is the Gulf beckoning?

🇦🇪 UAE to restore historic Umayyad Mosque: The UAE has announced plans to restore the eighth-century Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. As one of the world’s most significant masjids, the project includes repairs and conservation, as well as the revitalization of the surrounding area of Damascus. Regarded as a masterpiece of early Islamic architecture, the site was an Iron Age place of worship and later became a cathedral before the Muslim conquest of Damascus in 634 by Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra). The goal behind the restoration is to preserve Syria’s cultural heritage and boost the country’s post-war recovery. 

🇸🇦🇹🇷 Ottoman-era Hejaz Railway: Once, the historic Hejaz Railway was an important corridor linking Damascus and Medina. A true project of the Ummah, the money to build it came from Muslim donations across the Ottoman Empire. But after the First World War it fell on hard times. This could be changing. Yep, consider it the comeback kid! Türkiye and Saudi Arabia just signed a new agreement to revive the project, which would link Türkiye, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia and play a major role in boosting regional trade. There’s even talk of extending it to Oman and creating an alternative trade corridor linking the Gulf with Europe.

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