Assembly of Experts Says Takfiri Current Contrary to Islam...
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Takfiri groups, which are committing various crimes in the name of religion, are a deviant current and their acts amount to heresy and run counter to the tenets of Islam, Iran’s Assembly of Experts said in a statement on Wednesday. The statement also urges the world Muslims elites to stand against the Takfiri Salafist current “which is heresy in religion and is not in conformity with the Qu’ran and Islam … and to condemn this current, and any form of fratricide.” The conflict in Syria and the prospects of a military attack against that country by some western powers featured high in the statement. The assembly members warned “the US, Israel and European governments...
Pope Francis, King Abdullah II Of Jordan On Syria: Dialogue Is The ‘Only Option’...
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis and Jordan’s King Abdullah II reaffirmed that dialogue is the “only option” to end the conflict in Syria, just as the United States and its European allies consider launching a military strike against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The two leaders met for the first time on Thursday (Aug. 29) at the Vatican. The pontiff and the king, accompanied by his wife Queen Rania, talked in private for 20 minutes. According to an official Vatican statement, during the meeting “special attention” was given to Syria’s “tragic situation.” Talks of a possible Western military intervention in the Syrian crisis intensified after reports of a chemical weapons attack against civilians in Damascus last week....
Jordan’s king decries anti-Christian violence, calls upon Christians to defend Islam...
A week after meeting with Pope Francis, King Abdullah II of Jordan spoke at a conference on the plight of Christians in the Middle East and decried violence against them. “We support every effort to preserve the historical Arab Christian identity, and safeguard the right to worship freely, based on a rule in both the Christian and Islamic faiths that underlines love of God and love of neighbor,” said the king, according to The Jordan Times. “We are proud that Jordan constitutes a unique model of coexistence and fraternity between Muslims and Christians,” he continued. “We also believe that the protection of the rights of Christians is a duty rather than a favor. Arab Christians have played a key...
Somalia: Fatwa Against Al Shabab, ‘It Has No Place In Islam’...
September 12, 2013 Some 160 Somali religious scholars have issued a fatwa (judgment or learned interpretation in the Islamic faith) against the al Shabab, saying the group “has no place in Islam”. It is the first time Somali religious leaders have come up with a fatwa against the group, which controls vast rural areas. The announcement comes as residents of Bula Burte, in central Somalia, denounced that the al Shabab Islamists executed a young man and performed a double amputation in front of a crowd of dozens of people. The fatwa establishes that al Shabab “is not an Islamic movement” but an extremist group with “an erroneous ideology” that comes together “to kill Somalis without any legitimate reason...
Muslims give more to charity than others, UK poll says...
Muslims give more money to charity than people of other religions, according to a new British poll. More than three in 10 Muslims, Catholics and Jews donated money during 2012, ICM Research found. Followers of Islam gave an average of $567 compared to Jewish givers who donated around $412, according to the survey of just over 4,000 people in the U.K. Christians gave considerably less. Protestants donated an average of $308, while Roman Catholics gave around $272, the poll found. Atheists averaged just $177. In total 4,036 people answered the question: “How much, if at all, would you say you generally donated to charities last year?” Respondents were asked to exclude buying items from charity stores or sponsoring someone for a charity...
The problem in the Middle East is authoritarianism, not Islam...
August 20, 2013 12:15 AMBy Dani Rodrik Is Islam fundamentally incompatible with democracy? Time and again events compel us to ask this question. And yet it is a question that obscures more than it illuminates. Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia are very different countries, but one thing that they share are Islamist governments (at least until recently in Egypt’s case). To varying degrees, these governments have undermined their democratic credentials by failing to protect civil and human rights and employing heavy-handed tactics against their opponents. Despite repeated assurances, Islamist leaders have shown little interest in democracy beyond winning at the ballot box. So those who believe that the removal of Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi’s government was justified have a point. As the Muslim Brotherhood’s...
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