Posts tagged "Muslims"

Cameras installed to track Muslims in UK city

by Abdullah on Jun 5, 2010 Muslims, Security, Terrorism, United Kingdom • Comments Closed • Muslims, Security, Terrorism, United Kingdom

About 150 automatic number plate recognition cameras (ANPRs) have been installed in two predominantly Muslim areas of Britain’s second biggest city Birmingham from the government’s anti-terrorism fund, it was reported Saturday.

The cameras, including 40 concealed in walls and trees, are targeted to track the precise movement of people entering and leaving the Sparkbrook and Washwood Heath neighbourhoods of Birmingham, central England in the first surveillance of its kind in the UK.

The installation project, which is three times the number to monitor the city centre, was principally been sold to locals as an attempt to combat antisocial behavior, vehicle crime and drug dealing in the area.

But according to the Guardian, the cameras have been paid for by a £3 million grant from the Terrorism and Allied Matters Fund, which has been previously used to monitor potential targets but not whole communities.

Respect Party councillor for Sparkbrook Salma Yaqoob said that the funding arrangement was not made clear to the local authority, which was only told at a briefing the money was from the Home Office.

“The terrorism aspect was certainly not emphasised in that meeting. In fact it was me having to be portrayed as the awkward squad, or even paranoid, for even raising the issue of whether this was really about counterterrorism,” Yaqoob said.

“I raised my concern then: is this really about spying?” she said, but who was told “No, this is about burglary and crime.”

The surveillance of Muslims is in addition to the government’s Prevent extremism program, which the Institute of Race Relations has already castigated as “one of the most elaborate systems of surveillance ever seen in Britain”.

Prevent, set up by the Home Office over two years ago, offers additional funding to work with community groups to effectively spy on all Muslims as potential terrorists.

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…)

“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…)

Abdullah Khadr feared rape of sister

by Abdurrahman on Oct 7, 2009 Canada, Muslims, North America, Pakistan, Terrorism, World News • Comments Closed • Interview, Muslims, North America, Pakistan, Terrorism, world

Canadian captive Omar Khadr at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Abdullah Khadr broke down in a Toronto court Tuesday, saying he told authorities in Pakistan he had bought weapons for Al Qaeda because he feared if he didn’t say that, his sister would be raped.

The 28-year-old, who is fighting extradition to the United States on terrorism charges, said he invented stories because it was the only way to stop his alleged torture by Pakistani and U.S. officials.

Khadr alleges in an affidavit that during his 14 months in detention, Pakistani officers beat him and penetrated him with a stick and American officials threatened to arrest his sister and have done to her what had been done to him.

While testifying, the eldest son of the infamous Khadr family became choked up and wiped away tears.

“(The Americans) told me that if I didn’t confess … they would bring my sister and do terrible things,” Khadr told Crown prosecutor Howard Piafsky.

An FBI affidavit says the interview team “never threatened to harm or retaliate against Khadr, his sister or any family member if he did not give satisfactory answers.

“It also never threatened to send Khadr or his sister to any prison in Egypt or Uzbekistan, or suggested, directly or indirectly, that he or his sister would be raped,” says the affidavit, part of which was read by Piafsky. (more…)

ABORTION IN ISLAM

by salman on Jan 18, 2011 Allah, Family, Gifts, Islam • Comments Closed • Health & Fitness, Muslims, Women, world

ABORTION IN ISLAM:

In principle, the Quran condemns the killing of humans (except in the case of defense or as capital punishment), but it does not explicitly mention abortion. This leads Islamic theologians to take up different viewpoints: while the majority of early Islamic theologians permitted abortion up to day 40 of pregnancy or even up to day 120, many countries today interpret these precepts protecting unborn children more conservatively. Although there is no actual approval of abortion in the world of Islam, there is no strict, unanimous ban on it, either. Islam has not given any precise directions with regard to the issue of abortion. Hence it is not a matter, which has been clearly stated in the Shariah (Islamic Law) but rather an issue pertaining to the application of our knowledge of the Shariah. Such application may vary in conclusion with a difference in the basic premises of one’s arguments.

The Quran clearly disapproves of killing other humans: “Take not life which Allah has made sacred” (6:151; see also 4:29. “If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein (for ever)” (4:93). Allah (SWT) went even further, making unlawful killing of a single individual human being equal to mass murder of the whole of mankind:

“Because of that, We ordained for the children of Israel that if anyone killed a person not in retaliation for murder or for spreading mischief on earth, it would be as if he killed all mankind. And who saved a life, it would be as if he saved all mankind.” (Al-Maidah, 5:32)

As to whether abortion is a form of killing a human, the Quran does not make any explicit statements. Only Surah 17:31 warns believers in general: “Kill not your children for fear of want. We shall provide sustenance for them as well as for you. Verily the killing of them is a great sin.”

There are those in Islam who oppose all abortions. A favored text to support this is: “Do not kill your children for fear of poverty for it is We who shall provide sustenance for you as well as for them.” (Surah, Al-An’ am, 6:151). This Quranic reference is to killing already born children–usually girls. The text was condemning this custom. The Arabic word for killing used in this text “means not only slaying with a weapon, blow or poison, but also humiliating or degrading or depriving children of proper upbringing and education.” The text doesn’t explicitly address the abortion and therefore doesn’t close the argument on it.

The Quran says:

We created man from an essence of clay: then placed him, a living germ,

In a secure enclosure. The germ we made a leech; and the leech a lump of

Flesh; and this we fashioned into bones, then clothed the bones with flesh;

Then we develop it into another creation. (Surah Al-Mu’minoon, 23: 12-14)

This verse reveals how the fetus is formed and transforms into a complete human being.

The elaborate process of the development of the first human being is given in the Quran as follows:

He who has made everything which He has created most good. He

began the creation of man with(nothing more than) clay, and made

his progeny from a quintessence of the nature of a fluid despised.

Then He fashioned him in due proportion and breathed into him some-

thing of His Ruh(Life-Energy). And (with this) He gave you (the faculties

of ) hearing and sight and understanding. (Surah Al-Sajadah, 32:7-9).

During the development of fetus, the body received the Divine Ruh (Life-energy) and subsequently the human faculties of hearing, sight and understanding were developed.

There is no agreement among legal scholars – including those of the founders of the four schools of religious law of the early Islamic period – as to the exact point in time this happens, however.

Abortion

Islam’s approach to the issue of birth control and abortion is very balanced. It allows women to prevent pregnancy but forbids them to terminate it. In case of rape the woman should use the morning after pill or RU486 immediately after the sexual assault in order to prevent the possible implantation of a fertilized ovum. Modern technology (like ultra sound scan) has made it possible to know whether or not a child has a defect long before he is born. Some people justify the abortion of a defective fetus.

The Shari’ah allows abortion only when doctors declare with reasonable certainty that the continuation of pregnancy will endanger the woman’s life. This permission is based on the principle of the lesser of the two evils known in Islamic legal terminology as the principle of al-ahamm wa ‘l-muhimm (the more important and the less important). The Prophet said, “When two forbidden things come [upon a person] together, then the lesser will be sacrificed for the greater.” In the present case, one is faced with two forbidden things: either abort the unborn child or let a living woman die. Obviously, the latter is greater than the former; therefore, abortion is allowed to save the live person.

^{Permissibility of Abortion}

“And do not kill your children for fear of poverty: We give them sustenance and yourselves (too): surely to kill them is a great wrong.” (17:31)

The abortion of a fetus from the mother’s womb is a different issue, since the sperm and egg have already met and fertilized what could become a human being. The scholars all agree that abortion is forbidden after the first four months of pregnancy, since by that time the soul has entered the embryo but it would allow the use of RU486 (the “morning-after pill”), as long as it could be reasonably assumed that the fertilized egg has not become implanted on the wall of the uterus. Most scholars say that abortion is legal under Islamic Shari’ah (law), when done for valid reasons and when completed before the soul enters the embryo. To abort a baby for such vain reasons as wanting to keep a woman’s youthful figure, are not valid.

“…And do not slay your children for (fear of) poverty — We provide for you and for them — and do not draw nigh to indecencies, those of them which are apparent and those which are concealed, and do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except for the requirements of justice: this He has enjoined you with that you may understand.” (6:151)

Qur’anic verses misinterpreted

There are, however, some Qur’anic verses which prohibit infanticide:

“And do not kill your children for fear of poverty: We give them sustenance and yourselves (too): surely to kill them is a great wrong.” (17:31)

These verses in fact were revealed to forbid the pre-Islamic Arab practice of killing or burying alive a newborn child (particularly a girl) on account of the parents’ poverty or to refrain from having a female child. Perhaps in those days, people did not know safe methods of contraception and early abortion.

Embryonic development was central to the Muslim arguments on abortion. According to Muslim scholars, it is lawful to have an abortion during the first 120 days, but after the stage of ensoulment (after the soul enters into the fetus), abortion is prohibited completely except where it is imperative to save the mother’s life. After ensoulment, however, abortion is prohibited absolutely and is akin to murder.

The Hanafi scholars, who comprised the majority of orthodox Muslims in later centuries, permitted abortion until the end of the four months. According to them, a pregnant woman could have an abortion without her husband’s permission, but she should have reasonable grounds for this act. One reason, which was mentioned frequently, was the presence of a nursing infant. A new pregnancy put an upper limit on lactation, and the jurists believed that if the mother could not be replaced by a wet-nurse, the infant would die.

Abortion in Islam

Some Muslims argue that abortion is permissible if the fetus is younger than four months (120 days). They quote a statement from the Prophet (s) that refers to a human being starting as a fertilized ovum in the uterus of the mother for forty days, then it grows into a clot for the same period, then into a morsel of flesh for the same period, then an angel is sent to that fetus to blow the Ruh into it and to write down its age, deeds, sustenance, and whether it is destined to be happy or sad.

Assuming the Hadith to be authentic, scholars explain that the error comes from understanding that before the Ruh is blown into the fetus at 120 days, the fetus is not a living entity, and therefore aborting it does not amount to killing it. It therefore becomes clear that aborting a fetus before 120 days is still killing a living entity, let alone abortion after that presumed period.

Some Muslims argue that the only case when aborting a fetus, before or after 120 days, is allowed in Islam, is when a medical situation threatens the life of the mother, leaving only two options, to let either the other or the fetus survive, but not both. Scholars argue that such a case can only be determined by a specialist, trusted and committed Muslim doctor. They argue that the mother can have other children, whereas the child cannot make up for losing the mother.

Actions, Not Words, to Win Muslims

by sufisahab on Aug 29, 2009 Islam, Muslims, North America • Comments Closed • America, Islam, Muslims

"Each time we fail to live up to our values or donâ€™t follow up on a promise, we look more and more like the arrogant Americans the enemy claims we are,â€ Mullen said.

IslamOnline.net & Newspapers

CAIRO â€” Criticizing the US public relations programs for the Muslim world, Americaâ€™s top military commander believes that US actions, not promises, are the key to winning hearts and minds of Muslims worldwide.

â€œTo put it simply, we need to worry a lot less about how to communicate our actions and much more about what our actions communicate,â€ Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in an essay on the Joint Force Quarterly, an official military journal, on Friday, August 28.

â€œI would argue that most strategic communication problems are not communication problems at all.â€

Mullen said US plans to create new government and military bodies to manage a broad public relations effort to counter anti-US sentiments are unworkable.

â€œThey are policy and execution problems,” he said.

“Each time we fail to live up to our values or donâ€™t follow up on a promise, we look more and more like the arrogant Americans the enemy claims we are.â€

The criticism comes amid concerted efforts by the Obama administration to step up public relations efforts to improve the US image in the Muslim world.

In a landmark speech from Cairo in June, Obama vowed a new beginning with the Muslim world to overcome decades of mistrust and discord. (more…)

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