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...
Producer of Anti-Islam Film ‘Fitna’ Performs Hajj
CAIRO – Accepting Islam months ago, a once anti-Islam activist who produced a derogatory film wrongly portraying Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said he has found peace and tranquility while performing hajj this year. “I found myself among these faithful hearts,” Arnoud Van Doorn, a former member of Wilders’ Freedom Party, was quoted by Saudi Gazette on Friday, October 18. “I hope that my tears of regret will wash out all my sins after my repentance,” he added as his tears flow. Doorn, a former member of the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) has embraced Islam earlier this year after an extensive study into the religion. He was among party leaders who helped produce an offensive film titled...
Abdullah Ibn Al Muqaffa: Words of Wisdom for the Kings
One of the earliest contributors to the genre of “mirrors for princes” literature (Fürstenspiegel in German), Abdullah Ibn Al Muqaffa (720–757CE) perfected the art of political writing during the Early Middle Ages. A convert to Islam, he became a prominent writer, as well as an influential chancery secretary (katib). He penned key textbooks that instructed rulers on aspects of governance and behaviour, while he pioneered the emergence of classical Arabic literature. Best known for his translation from Farsi of the epic “Kalilah wa-Dimnah”, his real contributions lay in the use of literature to advise young and inexperienced princes at their accession. Although the best known (European) “mirror”, “Il Principe” [The Prince] (c 1513) by Machiavelli was universally appreciated,...
Muslim Americans More Popular than the Tea Party
Tea Party favorites Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and Larry Klayman spent most of last week bashing Muslims and introducing the “Quran” and “Allah” to the shutdown and debt ceiling debate that they are losing in Congress. Unfortunately for them, Muslims are in fact more popular and viewed more favorably by Americans than the far right movement. Having failed at governance and the basic task of securing an operational government, the Tea Party leaders had to retreat to ugly screams of Islamophobia in order to distract attention from their downfall and to drum up support with fear tactics. Larry Klayman, a clownish figure who started the Tea Party group Freedom Watch, brought a whole new dimension to...
HijabFest Explores Muslim Fashion in New Jersey
NEW BRUNSWICK — On Sept.22, the New Brunswick Islamic Center (NBIC) hosted the first ever HijabFest at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick. The word hijab can be defined as a veil or a scarf that mainly Muslim women use to cover their heads, but it can have a much broader meaning which is to have modesty in how one dresses, behaves and interacts. Approximately 400 Muslim women of all ages and diverse ethnic backgrounds participated in this ladies-only event. The theme of the event was, “What does Hijab mean to you? A celebration of the empowerment that hijab brings.” The event included various demonstrations and workshops on hijab, inspirational talks, a fashion show, and shopping, which brought...
Terrorists Distort Islam to Commit Their Grisly Crimes
Over the years, I’m sad to say, I have become inured to news of bloodshed, murder and calamity. A massacre here, a car-bombing there, an attack on worshippers at a Christian church in Pakistan or a terrorist attack on shoppers, like the recent one at Westgate Mall in Nairobi. UAE officials have consistently condemned the acts of those who inflict terror in pursuit of cynical goals they falsely portray as not only justified but authorised by Islam. But am I shocked by each event? Rarely. The death toll is too great; the frequency of such attacks is, to a certain degree, no longer news. I usually read the stories briefly, scarcely moved by the death toll. Yet once...
‘Do Not Let Fanatics, Radicals Hijack The Religion Of Islam’
I believe that tolerant and peace-loving Muslims should not keep silent over some of the atrocities committed in their name. Fanatics, extremists and sometimes fraudulent quacks exploit our Islamic culture, heritage and our Muslim identity to promote their twisted ideologies. We as Muslims are supposed to be always fair and just in what we do and what we say. For example, in Surah Al-Maeda, verse 8, God says: “O you who believe, stand up as witnesses for God in all fairness, and do not let the hatred of a people deviate you from justice. Be just: This is closest to piety; and beware of God. Surely God is aware of all you do.” Muslims are required to abide...
Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz: ‘Islam Forbids Terror’
One of Saudi’s top Islamic clerics, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, came out in no uncertain terms to condemn terrorism during his Hajj sermon on Monday. “Islam does not allow terrorism at any cost. Islam condemns all violence and terrorism plaguing the world today. Muslims should demonstrate a love for peace and unity,” he said, reports Dawn News. Though he did not explicitly mention the turmoil of the Arab Spring, he called on the global Muslim community to avoid sectarianism and come together. “Oh Muslims be God-fearing, adopt the taqwa (fear of Allah), shun from earning money through unislamic means, hold fast the rope of Allah and don’t be divided into diverse schools of thoughts, get united...
2 Million Gather for Islam’s Hajj
MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia — About 2 million Muslims from around the world prayed at a desert hill in Saudi Arabia yesterday, joined in their faith and desire to purify their souls at the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage. It is here on Mount Arafat, marked by a white pillar, where Islam’s Prophet Muhammad is believed to have delivered his last sermon to tens of thousands of followers some 1,400 years ago, calling on Muslims to unite. Prayers on and around the mount are a climactic emotional and spiritual moment in the hajj. The faithful believe that on this day the gates of heaven are open, prayers are answered and past sins are forgiven. Among the crowds...
Converting to Islam: British Women on Prayer, Peace and Prejudice
Ioni Sullivan, local authority worker, 37, East Sussex I’m married to a Muslim and have two children. We live in Lewes, where I’m probably the only hijabi in the village. I was born and raised in a middle-class, left-leaning, atheist family; my father was a professor, my mother a teacher. When I finished my MPhil at Cambridge in 2000, I worked in Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. Back then, I had a fairly stereotypical view of Islam, but became impressed with the strength the people derived from their faith. Their lives sucked, yet nearly everyone I met seemed to approach their existence with a tranquillity and stability that stood in contrast to the world I’d left behind. In 2001, I fell in...
Madonna Reveals She is Studying the Quran
Madonna revealed this week she has been studying the Holy Quran, a practice which has come alongside her efforts to build girls’ schools in Islamic countries. “I am building schools for girls in Islamic countries and studying the Holy Quran. I think it is important to study all the holy books,” the U.S. pop icon said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar published on Friday. Madonna added that she agrees with what one of her friends tell her; that a good Muslim is a good Jew, a good Jew is a good Christian, and so forth. The “Material Girl” recently got her fans talking after posting a picture on Facebook from a photo shoot in which she wore...
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