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...
Maya Wallace: My Journey to Islam
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZQFzHSkXKg[/youtube] In this edition of the show we talk to Maya Wallace about her journey to Islam. She talks about her challenges and changes as a Muslim convert in Britain before and after embracing the world’s fastest-growing...
Glamour model to cover up and convert to Islam after falling for Tunisian lifeguard
She used to spend her days posing in her underwear but now glamour model Carley Watts, 24, is to cover up after falling in love with Tunisian lifeguard, Mohammed Salah, 25. The model, from Dearham in Norfolk, met Salah during a holiday in Tunisia in April and says she is so serious about the lifeguard she is set to Islam to become his wife. From October, Carley and her daughter Alannah, two, will live close to his family in the city of Monastir, where she will spend six months learning about the faith – and planning their wedding. Carley told the Sun on Sunday that her friends think she is mad and that this is just a phase: ‘They can’t...
Muslim Converts In Mexico Make Up A Diverse, Fast-Growing Community
By Bernd Debusmann Published July 29, 2013 Fox News Latino MEXICO CITY – When Moroccan national Said Louahabi arrived in Mexico City in 1994, he and fellow Muslims had to attend religious services at the Pakistani embassy because there were no mosques or Islamic centers. “I started looking for Muslims and a mosque when I first arrived,” Louahabi, an English teacher, told Fox News Latino. “At the time, we met at the Pakistani embassy, and there were only about 80 people — most of us were foreigners.” Now, Louahabi prays alongside hundreds of other Muslims — foreigners and Mexicans alike — at the three-story Muslim Community Educational Center in the city’s upscale Anzures neighborhood. Friday prayers at the Islamic...
Why are black people turning to Islam?
Black conversion or “reversion” to Islam is not new; it has been taking place in the African diaspora since time immemorial. However, I looked deeper into the phenomenon to find out why a growing number of Black Britons, especially younger ones, are embracing Islam. Although I am not a Muslim, I have always been interested in Islam – three of my all-time heroes, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X and Jamaican singer Prince Busterwere Muslim converts, and I was intrigued by the way Islam inspired all three to transcend their respective vocations to become icons. What surprised me at the start of my study was that very little of any substance had been written about a religious phenomenon which first came to public prominence in the...
Islam’s ability to empower is a magnet to black British youths
A seminar was hosted last month by Christians Together in England to consider ways to “stem the flight of black British youths to Islam and radicalisation”. In an unprecedented move, Muslims were invited to attend – and they did. Together, both faith groups discussed the reasons why a growing number of young black people are choosing Islam in preference to Christianity. According to this morning’s BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, one in nine black Christian men are converting to Islam. Following in my father’s footsteps, I was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Sunday mass regularly as a child. I also attended a Roman Catholic secondary school – initially a cultural shock as I found myself the only black...
How they came to choose Islam
By Marina Bolotnikova / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Philip and Sherry Snow grew up Catholic in predominantly Christian towns on opposite sides of the country. Today, Philip and Sherry go by Ibrahim and Safiye, live on the North Side with their four children — and are devout adherents to Islam. When Sherry met Philip, a convert to Islam, online in 1996, she had been questioning her Catholic faith but had no interest in learning about his religion. “I went through the whole gamut of stereotypes that I’d heard about Muslims,” she said. But as she learned about Islam from Philip, she realized not just that her preconceptions about the religion were wrong, but also that Islam filled the gaps she perceived in...
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...
Her decision: finding peace by converting from Christianity to Islam
By: Casey Holliday Almost immediately after logging onto Facebook and posting that she had converted to Islam, April Fuller was bombarded with messages, from both her close friends and acquaintances. “Why did I expect anything less,” Fuller’s former youth pastor wrote. “I am an infadel (sic) according to your cult so therefore I am your enemy. Such a shame you have chosen to turn your back on a loving God and serve a false prophet who preaches hate for anyone not of said cult.” But an old childhood friend offered congratulations. “I know a lot of people and ‘friends’ are giving you hell about this. It’s your decision. I hope it works out for you sweetie.” Fuller’s uncle...
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...
The First Jewish Rabbi Convert to Islam: Abdullah ibn Salam
Al-Husayn ibn Salam was a Jewish rabbi in Yathrib [Madinah] who was widely respected and honored by the people of the city, even by those who were not Jewish. He was known for his piety and goodness, his upright conduct, and his truthfulness. Al-Husayn lived a peaceful and gentle life but he was serious, purposeful and organized in the way he spent his time. For a fixed period each day, he would worship, teach and preach in the temple. Then he would spend some time in his orchard, looking after date palms, pruning and pollinating. Thereafter, to increase his understanding and knowledge of his religion, he would devote himself to the study of the Torah. In this study,...
Quick Links
