Posts tagged "Islam"

Christian cleared of abusing Muslim

by Abdurrahman on Dec 9, 2009 Islam, Muslims, World News • Comments Closed • Akhlaaq, Christianity, Islam, Muslims, Women, world

A Christian couple who run a hotel in northern England were cleared on Wednesday of abusing a Muslim guest for wearing a hijab and then insulting her beliefs.

Benjamin and Sharon Vogelenzang were accused of launching a tirade against white British Muslim convert Ericka Tazi, 60, at their hotel in Liverpool where she had been staying while she attended a course at a local hospital in March.

Tazi, who converted to Islam 18 months ago, said they had laughed at her when she wore a hijab on the last day of her stay and Dutch-born Benjamin Vogenlenzang, 53, had called the prophet Mohammed a murderer and likened him to Saddam Hussein and Hitler.

Sharon Vogelenzang, 54, admitted suggesting that the hijab was a form of bondage but said her views were based on media references to Muslim women.

The couple also told the court that Tazi had insulted their religion by calling Jesus Christ a minor prophet and said the bible was untrue.

After a two-day trial judge Richard Clancy at Liverpool Magistrates Court dismissed charges the hoteliers had used threatening, abusive or insulting words which were religiously aggravated, the Press Association reported.

Mrs Tazi

He said Tazi’s claim she had been abused for up to an hour had not been borne out by other prosecution witnesses.

Prosecutors defended bringing the case, saying they believed there had been sufficient evidence for a realistic chance of a conviction.

“We would like to thank all those who have supported us over the last nine months — our family, our friends, our church, and Christians from all around the world and non-Christians,” Sharon Vogelenzang told reporters outside court after the verdict.”As Christmas approaches we wish everybody peace and goodwill.”

Face veil ban in schools

by sufisahab on Oct 6, 2009 Islam, Muslims, Women, World News • Comments Closed • Islam, Muslims, Women, world

veiled Egyptian students wearing the face-covering veil, known as the niqab,

Egypt’s top Islamic cleric is planning to ban students wearing the face veil from entering the schools of al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s premier institute of learning, according to an independent daily Monday.

A security official also told The Associated Press that police have standing verbal orders to bar girls covered from head to toe from entering al-Azhar’s institutions, including middle and high schools, as well as the dormitories of several universities in Cairo.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to speak to the press, said the ban was for security reasons.

The moves appear to be part of a government campaign cracking down on increasingly overt manifestations of ultraconservative Islam in Egypt.

While a vast majority of Egyptian women wear the headscarf, only a few wear the niqab, which covers the face and is common in neighboring Saudi Arabia which practices the more conservative form of Wahhabi Islam. The trend seems to gaining ground in the Arab world’s most populous country.

There is no uniform religious opinion across the Muslim world about whether a head scarf — much less a face veil — is required.

The majority of Islamic scholars say the face veil is not required but is merely a custom that dates back to tribal, nomadic societies living in the Arabian desert before Islam began.

Sheik of al-Azhar Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi’s plans came to light when he told a middle school student in a class he was visiting earlier this week to take off her niqab. (more…)

Swiss businessman defiantly builds minaret to protest ban

by Abdullah on Dec 11, 2009 Islam, Muslims, North America, Protest, World News • Comments Closed • Islam, Muslims, North America, world

Swiss businessman Guillaume Morand erected a minaret atop the chimney of his office building

In a country where failing to use official, region-specific trash bags can incur a hefty fine, defying a architectural ban on minarets is practically an act of terrorism.

But that didn’t stop Swiss businessman Guillaume Morand, who protested last month’s constitutional amendment banning minarets by building one atop the chimney of his office in the city of Lausanne.

Morand, who owns a chain of shoe stores, told the AFP news agency that the ban is shameful, and blamed liberal parties for failing to counter what he described as right-wing scare tactics. The Swiss People’s Party, which spearheaded the initiative to ban minarets on mosques, released an aggressive campaign including posters of women in face-covering burkas and minarets shaped like rockets.

The ban was all the more scandalous, Morand said, given that Switzerland encourages Arabs to “visit the country and to spend their money here.”

Morand joins prominent Jewish leaders and the Vatican in condemning the referendum last month, when 53% of Swiss voters went to the polls to decide whether to outlaw the construction of any more minarets, although only four mosques in Switzerland have them. The amendment passed with 57% of the votes. (more…)

“Gay Travels in the Muslim World”

by Asad on Dec 22, 2009 Islam, Knowledge, North America, World News • Comments Closed • Gay, Islam, North America, world

The Middle East is famous for hospitality, but will that extend to the tour for the Routledge Press book, Gay Travels in the Muslim World?

The book, edited by Michael Luongo, is the first and only gay themed American book ever to be translated into Arabic. The tour begins at Lebanon’s Beirut Book Fair where Luongo will be signing the book today at the Arab Diffusion. After Lebanon, Luongo will travel through Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Egypt, among other countries during his six week tour.

“I’ve had conversations for the past two years about presenting this book in the Middle East, but until now, that just hasn’t happened,” said the 41 year old editor, noting he had tried to present the book at the Emirates Airlines Book Fair in the past.

“Ironically, the Arabs who were part of the Fair said yes, but the Europeans, afraid of controversy, said no. Homophobia is complicated, isn’t it?” So far in Lebanon, there has been a positive reaction, and Luongo said even a member of the Saudi government bought a copy of the book and asked about possibly presenting it in Riyadh.

The book has been a consistent gay travel best seller in the United States and was originally published by Haworth Press in 2007, until the company was bought by Routledge/Taylor & Francis in 2008.

In 2009, the Lebanese publishing company Arab Diffusion launched the book in Arabic. This itself was not without controversy as the publisher used the Arabic word “shaz” in its translation for gay, a word meaning “different” but which can also mean “pervert,” and historically used to mean gay. The lost-in-translation problem made headlines across the globe, including in the New York Post’s Page 6 gossip column. Arab Diffusion has agreed to recover the book using the more sensitive word “mithlee” a modern Arabic literal translation of homosexual. (more…)

“Wahhabis” Suspected in Killing of Muslim Cleric

by Abdullah on Sep 21, 2009 Eid, Islam, Muslims, North America, Terrorism, World News • Comments Closed • Eid, Islam, Muslims, North America, Terrorism, world

Ismail Bostanov

The Deputy Chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Stavropol, Ismail Bostanov, was murdered in the city of Cherkessk on Sunday (September 20). Interfax quoted a law enforcement source in Karachaevo-Cherkessia as saying the attack took place when Bostanov’s was stopped at a traffic light and unidentified attackers opened fire on him. Bostanov was killed and his son was wounded and hospitalized (Interfax, September 20). According to other reports, the attack took place at a gas station (RIA Novosti, September 20). Bostanov was reportedly traveling back from a mosque in Ust-Dzheguta, south of Cherkessk, with his son when the attack occurred (www.newsru.com, September 20).

Bostanov was the Deputy Chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Stavropol for over 20 years and rector of the Islamic Institute in Karachaevo-Cherkessia for more than 10 years (www.gazeta.ru, RIA Novosti, September 20). In December 2006, three masked attackers broke into Bostanov’s home in Cherkessk, knifed and shot him and with firearms and beat up his wife. However, investigators at the time concluded that attack was part of an attempted robbery because the raiders stole money from Bostanov’s house (Kommersant, September 21).

Ismail Berdiev, who is the mufti of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and head of the Coordination Center of Muslims of the North Caucasus, said yesterday that he is convinced that Bostanov was killed by “Wahhabis” -the standard term used by local officials in the North Caucasus, both governmental and religious, for Islamist rebels and their sympathizers. “And who else could it have been -he was not a businessman, so that it could have entered someone’s mind to kill him for the sake of money,” Berdiev told Interfax, adding that Bostanov was known in Karachaevo-Cherkessia as “an active fighter against the spread of Wahhabi ideology.” Berdiev expressed particular indignation over the fact that Bostanov’s murder took place on the Muslim holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan (Eid Al-Fitr started Sunday, September 20, in most Arab and Muslim countries as well as in North America and Europe). “It simply beggars the imagination that someone dared to commit this heinous crime on such a holy day,” Berdiev said (www.newsru.com, September 20). (more…)

‘Muslim countries do not manage wealth properly’

by Abdullah on May 9, 2010 Islam, Muslims, World News • Comments Closed • Islam, Muslims, world

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed is arguably the most popular politician in the Muslim street. Even in retirement he still exudes that “street cred” and “wow” factor because he speaks his mind. Not surprisingly, when he delivered the keynote speech at the Malaysia Islamic finance showcase dinner in Manama on the eve of the 7th Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) annual summit, he did not disappoint, albeit privately, his aides did suggest that he toned down some of his remarks.

The theme of his speech, “Islamic Finance – New Hope for the Future of the Muslim World,” may sound aspirational or even idealistic, but the former Malaysian leader was not bereft of any ideas or suggestions.

He rued the fact that Muslims and Muslim countries do not value or manage their wealth properly, which has created a culture on dependency and a lack of capacity building. “The very rich Muslims and Muslim countries,” he explained, “appear not to value their wealth or to care about the management of wealth. This has been taken advantage of by others. We may have unlimited sources of wealth but we can never assume that the resources will always yield wealth forever. Depending on others to extract and market our resources is dangerous. The Muslim economy are of course a part of the world’s economy but whether the Muslims get their fair share of the wealth of their countries depends on their ability to extract it themselves.” (more…)

5 U.S.suspected of terror links

by Asad on Dec 10, 2009 Islam, Muslims, North America, Pakistan, Terrorism, World News • Comments Closed • Islam, Muslims, North America, Pakistan, Talibaan, Terrorism, USA, world

Nihad Awad, national executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, spoke in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday about the arrests in Pakistan of five Americans

Police in Pakistan raided a house linked to an Islamic militant group Wednesday and arrested five young American Muslim men from the Washington, D.C., area, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

One of the young men had left behind a video showing scenes of war, calling for the defense of Muslims and saying that “young Muslims have to do something,” said a person who had seen the video, describing it as a farewell of sorts.

It was the third known case since September in which Americans with ties to the Pakistan-Afghanistan region have been detained over possible terrorist connections.

The men were not accused of any crime, but their intent remained mysterious, and both U.S. and Pakistani officials emphasized that they were still gathering facts.

The five Americans, ranging in age from 19 to 25, were arrested in Sargodha, a dusty city in Punjab province, where several militant organizations with links to al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban operate, according to a senior Pakistani official and a U.S. official in Washington. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

Three of the men arrested Wednesday are Pakistani-Americans, one is a Yemeni-American and one an Egyptian-American, the Pakistani official said. Pakistani law enforcement officers had “continuously tracked” the men from the moment they arrived Dec. 1 at Karachi international airport. All carried U.S. passports, he said. (more…)

A call to arms

by AFTAB-AHMAD on Aug 14, 2010 Flood, Islam, Muslims, Pakistan, Ramadhan • Comments Closed • Flood, Islam, Pakistan, Ramadan, Zakat

Aslamu alaikum

I would like to wish everyone a blessed Ramadan. As we enter this month, we are encouraged to keep the sufferings of the destitute and starved in mind. Since a good act is appreciated greatly by Allah, it is encouraged to give one’s Zakat in this month.

As I write this email, there has been a severe devastation in Pakistan. Due to the raging water of the floods many people have lost their lives, houses and livestock. The loss of the seasons’ crops is spelling the impending doom of a fast approaching famine. There have been cases of people who stood on the roofs of their houses and were drowned to death along with their small children and wives.

I have been able to find a very reliable person (Haroon Agha) in Pakistan to distribute this year’s Zakat. I would wish that everyone who gets this message pool something in by Ramadan 15^th so that the money can arrive promptly to those who deserve it. You are encouraged to give Zakat and Sadaqah. The money however will only be given to people who deserve Zakat with a preference to those who have been hard hit by the floods.

Please reply to this email or see me in person to contribute to this cause.

Hassan Mian.

A Meeting with Allah | Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim (RH)

by Abdullah on Aug 6, 2009 Fadhaail, Islam • Comments Closed • Islam, Knowledge

Â Reference: Ibn al Qayyim’s Haadi al-Arwaah ilaa Bilaad il-Afraah, p.193

A Prayer to Welcome Ramadhan

by Asad on Aug 8, 2009 Fadhaail, Islam, Knowledge • Comments Closed • Islam, Knowledge

Here is a prayer to welcome the Month of Ramadhan. Each image I searched by using a word from each section of the Prayer. I just selected the first thing I sawâ€¦sort of a mosaic of google images. The source is linked for each picture and the search word is the caption not necessarily the title of the photograph. The prayer isÂ long, but worth it. May Allah accept our fasts in the month of Shaban and the month of Ramadhan and may it be a means of us attaining nearness to Him.

Authibillahhimina Shaytanir Rajimâ€¦Bismillahir Rahamanir Raheem
Allahumma Salle Ala Muhammed Wa Alle Muhammed

Praise belongs to God who guided us to His praise and placed us among the people of praise, that we might be among the thankful for His beneficenceÂ and that He might recompense us for thatÂ with the recompense of the good-doers!

ThankfulÂ

Â And praise belongs to God whoÂ showed favour to us through His religion, singled us out for His creed, and directed us onto the roads of His beneficence, in order that through His kindness we might travel upon them to His good pleasure,Â a praise which He will accept from us and through which He will be pleased with us! (more…)

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