RECENT FROM Attitudes
Study: Radicalized Muslims Have Little Actual Knowledge Of Islam...
Extremists and Islamophobes alike have attempted to paint violent factions within Islam as the true expression of the faith. But a new study gives credence to what countless Muslim leaders, activists and scholars have argued: that groups like the self-proclaimed Islamic State are Muslim in name alone. A group of German scholars at the Universities of Bielefeld and Osnabrück analyzed 5,757 WhatsApp messages found on a phone seized by police following a terrorist attack in the spring of 2016. The messages were exchanged among 12 young men involved in the attack. The attack itself was not identified in the report. Deutsche Welle noted that the timeframe suggested it may...
RECENT FROM Sports
Boxing Champ Launches Sports Hijab...
A boxing champion from the East End has created a sports hijab to help more Muslim women get into combat sports. Ruqsana Begum (below) – who is the current British female Atomweight Muay Thai boxing champion – runs personal training sessions and women-only sessions in the sport at the Osmani Centre in Whitechapel. She said: “I came up with the idea during the Olympics. I was interested in the story of an American athlete who was told she couldn’t compete wearing her hijab due to health and safety reasons, so her father created one that was approved for her to fight in. “I thought if they can create one...
RECENT FROM Service
Is Islamic Law an Answer for Humanitarians?...
DUBAI, 24 April 2014 (IRIN) – Humanitarian action today is largely taking place in Muslim-majority countries where some combatants turn to Islamic law, among other sources, to guide their military behaviour. As a result, in the last decade, aid and advocacy agencies have increasingly tried to understand Islamic law in order to use its humanitarian provisions as tools of negotiation with armed groups in the Muslim world. This is particularly helpful in engaging Islamist armed groups, some of whom reject international humanitarian law (IHL). Some aid agencies try to situate their arguments for access or protection of civilians within a religious context, sometimes using scholars, mullahs or other religious...
Study: Radicalized Muslims Have Little Actual Knowledge Of Islam
Extremists and Islamophobes alike have attempted to paint violent factions within Islam as the true expression of the faith. But a new study gives credence to what countless Muslim leaders, activists and scholars have argued: that groups like the self-proclaimed Islamic State are Muslim in name alone. A group of German scholars at the Universities of Bielefeld and Osnabrück analyzed 5,757 WhatsApp messages found on a phone seized by police following a terrorist attack in the spring of 2016. The messages were exchanged among 12 young men involved in the attack. The attack itself was not identified in the report. Deutsche Welle noted that the timeframe suggested it may have been a bombing at a Sikh temple in...
Why Islam Is The World’s Fastest-Growing Religion
While the global population is expected to grow 32 percent by 2060, the number of Muslims is expected to grow 70 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. In the second half of this century, the number of Muslims is projected to surpass the number of Christians around the world. Interview Highlights On why the global Muslim population is growing so rapidly “Muslims are the youngest major religious group in the world. They have a median age of 24. And Muslims have more children than people in any other group. About three children per woman who’s Muslim, compared to about 2.2 children per woman who’s not Muslim in the world.” “People of course do change religious faiths, and...
American Eagle Debuted a Denim Hijab and a Somali Refugee to Model It
American Eagle has been seriously stepping up its inclusivity game as of late. Not only did the brand ban the use of Photoshop and retouching from its latest ads following huge successes with similar initiatives for its sister site, Aerie, but the retailer is now joining the likes of Nike with the release of its first-ever hijab. And not just any hijab — this one looks just like denim. The Dark Indigo Hijab ($20) is crafted from a lightweight lyocell or viscose, according to American Eagle’s online shop, and its mission is to inspire girls the world over to show their style while maintaining their beliefs with slogans such as, “wear it your way,” and “make it as...
Hijab-Wearing Teen Wins Best-Dressed
This young woman honors her religion with style and grace. Abrar Shahin, a Muslim teen who wears a hijab — a symbol of modesty in her faith — was awarded best-dressed at her New Jersey high school this spring, Today.com reported. The 18-year-old is proud of herself for winning, and of her classmates for making an unconventional choice for the superlative, telling the news outlet, “I am honored to come from a generation that is accepting. … Growing up in this society can be difficult, but the only way to advance and break stereotypes is to stay true to ourselves and our beliefs.” Shahin has always had an interest in fashion, and as she developed her personal style,...
Seattle Is More Islamic than Dubai
This weekend, I had a brief but interesting talk with a Lyft driver who, though originally from Baltistan (a place I had never heard of until I was in his car), lived for many years in Dubai. One of his daughters was born there, and the other here in Seattle, the city his family moved to two years ago. Why Seattle and not some other city, I asked? He explained that he and his wife did some research and came to the conclusion that Seattle was the best place in the US to practice their faith in peace. (There are an estimated 30,000 Muslims in the greater Seattle area.) “This city is even more Islamic than Dubai,” he...
Is Islamic Law an Answer for Humanitarians?
DUBAI, 24 April 2014 (IRIN) – Humanitarian action today is largely taking place in Muslim-majority countries where some combatants turn to Islamic law, among other sources, to guide their military behaviour. As a result, in the last decade, aid and advocacy agencies have increasingly tried to understand Islamic law in order to use its humanitarian provisions as tools of negotiation with armed groups in the Muslim world. This is particularly helpful in engaging Islamist armed groups, some of whom reject international humanitarian law (IHL). Some aid agencies try to situate their arguments for access or protection of civilians within a religious context, sometimes using scholars, mullahs or other religious figures as liaison with Islamist armed groups. Others, like...
Top Ten Ways Islamic Law Forbids Terrorism
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, has been convicted on all counts in the Boston Marathon bombings. Dzhokhar and his brother Tamerlan were from a mixed Chechen and Avar family. Dzhokhar was born in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian republic that had been part of the Communist Soviet Union. Being from a Soviet background, the Tsarnaevs were probably originally more or less atheists, whatever they said later. Even Soviet Muslims from the Caucasus and Central Asia who identified as “Muslims” mostly did so before the 1990s as a matter of ethnicity, not piety. Most Soviet Muslim men drank copious amounts of vodka. Few knew how to pray in the Muslim manner with prostrations. Being deracinated appears to have left the Tsarnaev boys...
Islam Requires Muslims to Protect Christians
Five years ago, I lost close friends in one of the most gruesome terrorist attack on Pakistani soil. In twin attacks on two Mosques in Lahore, 88 Ahmadi Muslim worshippers were killed at the hands of the Taliban. It was a painfully bloody day. This last weekend, I woke up to sad news from Pakistan that made me relive some of that pain. Fourteen worshipers were killed, and more than 70 were injured, when two Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up outside churches in the Youhanabad neighborhood of Lahore, Pakistan. These attacks on Pakistan’s Christian community are not a sporadic event. They are a part of a very tragic trend. Just over a year ago, another suicide attack...
New Islamic Art Exhibits Planned to Counter Islam’s Militant Image
(Reuters) — Art from the Islamic world will be shown in the heart of the British Museum, instead of on the sidelines, in two new galleries funded by a Malaysian foundation which hopes to offset the image created by Islamic militants. The museum, which houses one of the world’s largest collections of art and artefacts, said on Thursday it plans to open two new galleries in its south wing devoted to its extensive collection of art from the Islamic world. Until now works from the collection have been displayed in a gallery tucked away on the north side of the massive building, a long walk from the main entrance. The two new galleries, which will complement the existing...
There’s No Place for Terror in the Teachings of Islam
Every Muslim is in utter shock about the senseless, appalling and cowardly attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris, and the other senseless violence against innocents we have seen since in Copenhagen and Libya. Let us say it plainly: These horrific acts are a complete violation of Islamic law and norms, and the perpetrators are in no way representative of Muslim people or the religion of Islam. God upholds the sanctity of life as a universal principle. The Koran states in 4:29: “And do not kill one another, for God is indeed merciful unto you.” Islam views murder as both a crime punishable by law in this world and as a major sin punishable in the Afterlife. As Prophet...
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