Muslim women stage a march against terrorism in Agra, Islam, Women and Feminism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam, Women and Feminism Muslim women stage a march against terrorism in AgraHundreds of Muslim women took to streets in Agra on Sunday against the terror menace.The rally was a part of the three-day National Women Muslim Conference, which concluded at Mathur Vaishya Bhavan in Agra.carrying banners and placards with messages against terrorism, the participant said that the aim of this march is to create awareness among women especially Muslim women against the terror menace.Shahzad Khan, organiser of the event, said that this was a three-day campaign to create awareness among the educationally backward sections of the society."This campaign was to create awareness among the Muslims who are educationally backward. National Muslim Front has begun this door-to-door campaign today along with...

Indonesia Upholds Blasphemy Law, Islamic World News

Islamic World News Indonesia Upholds Blasphemy LawCritics say the law is vague, allowing authorities to interpret and enforce it how they choose, which they say has largely been used against those seen as offending mainstream Islam.The government used the blasphemy law in the past to outlaw religious groups, including Ahmadiya, a minority Islamic group banned in 2008 whose members identify themselves as Muslims but do not believe in the core tenet of Islam that Muhammad is the last prophet.They also say conservative Islamic groups have used the law as justificationfor violent attacks on minority religious groups.'Blow to freedom'Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US based rights organisation, said the ruling "dealt a severe blow to religious freedom" in the world's third-largest democracy."Indonesia's...

Fatwa-mongers have a lot to learn from ancient jurists, Islamic Sharia Laws, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Sharia Laws Fatwa-mongers have a lot to learn from ancient juristsBy Arif M KhanThe communiqué further said that what is hidden and secret belongs on the outcome of the judicial proceedings. The legal verdict shall depend only on express statements, evidence adduced and facts of the case. In another communication to Abu Moosa Ashari, the Caliph laid down that “no person shall hold law court or hear legal dispute except the authority established by law”. The reason being that such authorities are supported by state power, and state power, when applied correctly, is an effective deterrent against wrongdoers and false witnesses.This position was further reiterated by Caliph Umar in his communiqué to Abdullah bin Masood whom he had appointed as in-charge of education in Kufa. Ibn Masood...

Sultan Shahin: A Life Positive Magazine Profile: The universe is a manifestation of the one universal consciousness, Spiritual Meditations

Spiritual Meditations Sultan Shahin: A Life Positive Magazine Profile: The universe is a manifestation of the one universal consciousnessTransformationSultan Shahin, a journalist, spoke to Praveen ChopraIs this man for real, you wonder. He has the temerity to write that Muslims in India should have no qualms in claiming their Vedic heritage. Or that Muslims' prayers remain unheeded because they have forgotten how to pray effectively, to meditate that is. He calls the Babri mosque demolition an opportunity for Muslims to learn some lessons and to feel grateful to God for making it possible. They can, for example, exert their right to forgive and thus set both parties to the dispute free of the karmic debt. This is provocative stuff. But Sultan Shahin, son of a maulvi (Muslim priest) and married...

Making sense of Pakistan’s nuclear moves, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics Making sense of Pakistan’s nuclear movesBy Cyril AlmeidaKarachiOccasionally, very occasionally, the military mind here hits upon a good idea. The offer to supply nuclear fuel cycle services under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards may be one of those ideas. Let’s begin with the science bit in this maze of scientific jargon and high-stakes international politics.What Pakistan has offered is analogous to an oil-refining facility. If you have a generator and barrels of crude oil, you can’t very well pour the oil into the generator and flip the switch; you need petrol or diesel. So for countries looking to, say, set up a nuclear power plant — all the rage nowadays — Pakistan is offering to prepare the nuclear fuel that will power the plant which will produce electricity....

The Status of ‘Suicide Attacks’ or ‘Martyrdom Operations’ in the Shariah, Islamic Sharia Laws, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Sharia Laws The Status of ‘Suicide Attacks’ or ‘Martyrdom Operations’ in the ShariahBy Maulana Waris Mazhari(Translated from Urdu by Yoginder Sikand/Noor Mohammad Sikand)However, now that fidayeen attacks are no longer confined just to Palestine and directed only at Israelis, but have become a global phenomenon, targeting even Muslim countries and Muslim peoples, as in the case of Pakistan, those who sought to provide legitimacy for such actions are faced with a peculiar dilemma. It is true that, prior to the American aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan, fidayeen attacks by Muslim groups were confined only to Palestine. However, continued American imperialist offensives, including America’s unstinting support to the Israeli occupiers, have driven many Muslim youth to the wall,...

Munir Commission Report-36: The Decision Of 24th December 1952, Books and Documents, NewAgeIslam.com

Books and DocumentsMunir Commission Report-36: The Decision Of 24th December 1952The Decision Of 24th December 1952 Under this head we shall deal with a number of files which were postponed for a discussion with the Chief Minister and in respect of which a decision was ultimately taken on the 24th December. (A) Convention at Rawalpindi on 15th and 16th November 1952—The following extracts from speeches deserves notice:— (1) Master Taj-ud-Din: Zafrullah will have to face a trial after his removal for anti-State and anti-Islam activities. (2) Qazi Ehsan Ahmad: The struggle is between ghaddar and wafadar or between truth and falsehood. * * * In these days the terms interest and profit, bribe and fee, spy and prophet are synonymous. Violence is permissible for the protection of Islam, though not...

In its 62nd year, Israel is in a diplomatic, security and moral limbo, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs In its 62nd year, Israel is in a diplomatic, security and moral limboSays an editorial in Haaretz, Tel AvivApril 19, 2010The joy attendant on Israel's Independence Day traditionally focused on emphasizing the growing list of the young state's achievements and the sense that the country was progressing toward a better future - one of peace, enhanced physical and existential security, integration into the family of nations and the region, and a normalized existence. But the country's lifespan, which was considered a great virtue in and of itself during the first few decades, has become secondary to a far more important question: Within what dynamic is Israel operating? Is time on Israel's side? Is it setting goals for itself and working toward their realization? Has it blossomed...

Speaking of fatwas: What about female circumcision?, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News Speaking of fatwas: What about female circumcision?Last month, a group of prominent Muslim scholars met in the Turkish city of Mardin to revisit the Mardin fatwa, the 14th-century legal edict written by Muslim scholar Ibn Taymiyya, who lived during the brutal Mongol invasion. While the Mongols eventually embraced Islam, they unleashed terror on their religious brethren. Ibn Taymiyya declared that, although the Mongols were nominally Muslim, they did not rule according to classical Islamic law and, therefore, could be killed. The Mardin fatwa is often quoted by Osama bin Laden and other extremists to excommunicate and murder Muslims who don’t share their views. The fatwa is also used to justify the murder of unarmed combatants.The scholars declared that these interpretations...

Objectives Resolution and Secularism –14, Urdu Section, NewAgeIslam.com

Urdu Section Objectives Resolution and Secularism –14By Wajahat Masood(Translated from Urdu by Sohail Arshad)One angle of the administrative chaos was that the transfer of a large number of the government officers to Pakistan or India on religious lines had become inevitable. Because of the possibility of migration also there was a decline in the sense of responsibility, discipline or the fear of authorities’ reprimand among the administrative officials. In the united Punjab, Lahore was the administrative centre. The systems of all the important government offices, banks, railways, telephones, radio, and the roads were centralised in Lahore. Unfortunately, Lahore was the centre of communal skirmishes that took place from time to time in the months of May, June and July. In the united Punjab,...

Reclaiming Jerusalem’s lost legacy, Interfaith Dialogue, NewAgeIslam.com

Interfaith Dialogue Reclaiming Jerusalem’s lost legacyBy Saif ShahinJerusalem or the abode of peace. A city of walls and cracks, peoples and passers by, culture and commerce, loving and losing. Above all, a city of worship, of religion — or so they say! For more than half a century, Muslims and Jews have been jousting for Jerusalem. Both say it is among the holiest of their cities, and they have an assortment of archaeological and architectural evidence to support their claims. Neither denies the claims of the other; indeed, for Muslims it is partially so holy because of the same claims that the Jews make upon it. Yet, both want exclusive rights over it. Lost on both sides is the supreme irony that their thoroughly temporal squabble is in direct defiance of spiritual legacy of the city they...

No Religion Can Claim To Possess Absolute Truth, Spiritual Meditations, NewAgeIslam.com

Spiritual Meditations No Religion Can Claim To Possess Absolute TruthBy Thomas ChillikulamDivine understanding ... Religious fundamentalism runs on the engine of arrogance. A religious fundamentalist claims to possess absolute knowledge and truth about God. The basic teachings of religions regarding God prove such claims to be false because all religions perceive God as an inexhaustible and indescribable mystery that cannot be grasped fully. The Bible affirms that the ineffable mystery of God eludes understanding - "Can you penetrate the designs of God? It is higher than the heavens; what can you know?" (Book of Job 11:78).St Augustine, an early Christian thinker, warned those who hold absolutist claims: "If you know God,it is not God". For St Thomas Aquinas, Christian theologian of all times,...

To Bangalore, with hate, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad To Bangalore, with hateBy Praveen SwamiPolice hunting for the perpetrators of last week's attacks on the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore are revisiting the 2008 serial bombings in the city.“HAPPY Vishu, Malayalees and Pravasees,” reads the cheerful red banner running across the web page set up by an enthusiastic resident of Pallikera in Kerala. Photos offer a glimpse of the small town's charms: men with gym-honed biceps, the Bekal fort, and, improbably, photos of two western tourists hugging the billboard of a local celebrity.Fifteen years ago, a young man named Sarfaraz Nawaz left Pallikera on a journey that would lead, step by step, to the serial bombings in Bangalore in June, 2008. From his story, and that of his associates in south India's Islamist networks,...

Now, Islamic Terror Strikes Pakistan’s Top University, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News Now, Islamic Terror Strikes Pakistan’s Top UniversityLAHORE: The professor was working in his office here on the campus of Pakistan’s largest university this month when members of an Islamic student group battered open the door, beat him with metal rods and bashed him over the head with a giant flower pot.Iftikhar Baloch, an environmental science professor, had expelled members of the group for violent behavior. The retribution left him nearly unconscious, and it united his fellow professors, who protested with a nearly three-week strike that ended on Monday.The attack and the anger it provoked have drawn attention to the student group, Islami Jamiat Talaba, whose morals police have for years terrorized this graceful, century-old institution by brandishing a chauvinistic...

Islamophobia: French Government Is Responsible For Protecting Religious Minorities, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West Islamophobia: French Government Is Responsible For Protecting Religious MinoritiesExcellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,I am fully aware that coming here to tell you about violations of Muslims’ rights living in France can appear inadequate.It is true that every day, thousands of people are detained, killed, tortured throughout the world, because of their religious, political beliefs, their sexual orientation, or colour of skin.On the other hand, France, the country of my ancestors, has always claimed to be the champion, not to say the inventor of human rights.French diplomacy has excelled in giving lessons in this issue.However, we are facing important movements is Islamophobia, characterized by violence especially conducted towards Muslims.That is why, just like many citizens,...

Burqas: Terrorists’ Calling Card?, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West Burqas: Terrorists’ Calling Card?By Ryan MauroOn April 17, a refugee camp at Kohat in Pakistan was struck by two suicide bombers who disguised themselves in burqas. The attack, which killed 41 people and injured 62, is sure to heighten the debate in Europe about whether wearing burqas and niqabs in public should be banned. A parliamentary committee in Belgium has unanimously approved such a ban, with the final vote in the House of Representatives on April 22 expected to pass it. Movements to ban the burqa in Europe are growing due to concern that the Islamic veil can be used to disguise the identities of terrorists planning attacks like those that just took place in Pakistan and over the lack of assimilation of Muslim immigrants.These concerns are not unfounded. Even though...

Insurgency and Terrorism: Need for New Thinking, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror Insurgency and Terrorism: Need for New ThinkingBy Raghu Raman13 April 2010With conventional methods failing against insurgency and terrorism, there is a need for new thinkingThe global war on terror offers opportunities for imbibing lessons that other countries have learnt at high costs—often paid for in blood. The last decade of anti-terror and anti-insurgency operations conducted the world over offers valuable insights for the conduct of such operations in the future.Historically, conflicts have had four distinct eras. After World War II, there was a race to achieve arms superiority, culminating in the nuclear détente between two superpowers and the other members of the nuclear club. The next era of the Cold War saw the superpowers’ ideologies being played out in proxy wars...

Sinners and Saints, Spiritual Meditations, NewAgeIslam.com

Spiritual Meditations Sinners and SaintsBy Jug SuraiyaThe 'scandal' of Nithyananda is of course not a scandal at all. A needless brouhaha has been created about self-styled 'godmen' who turn out to be satyrs in holy garb, sinners disguised as saints. Such distinctions would be meaningless both for the hedonist as well as the spiritualist. In Tantricism, for instance, to name just one spiritual discipline, sex is only a means to attain a higher level of consciousness, as are alcohol and narcotics, both of which are commonly viewed as vices. However, the Catholic church's cover-up of alleged paedophilia and the 'sex guru' episode might revive that old chestnut: the nature of 'good' and 'evil', the difference between saints and sinners, angels and demons. Are good and evil polar opposites, implacable...

Sirajuddin Quraishi to be Obama's guest, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News Sirajuddin Quraishi to be Obama's guestThe Chairman and Managing Director of Hind Group of Industries and the President of India Islamic Cultural Centre, Sirajuddin Quraishi is leaving for Washington today on the invitation of the US President Barack Obama. He will participate in the summit meeting of small and big Muslim businessmen of the world to be held on April 26-27. Before leaving, Mr Quraishi said that this was the first effort to bring the Muslim businessmen from all over the world at one platform and hoped that the success of this conference would inspire Muslim countries to organise such programmes. He pointed out that the industrialists had one common virtue that they shared their problems with each other and found a solution with collective deliberations. This...

What Can These Women suicide bombers Be Thinking?, Islam, Women and Feminism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam, Women and Feminism What Can These Women suicide bombers Be Thinking?Since 1985, more than 250 women, Tamil, Chechen, Indian, and Muslim, have become suicide bombers.An unsettling new trend is emerging: conversion of Western women to Islam and their recruitment into Islam's most murderous cults. How can such a misogynistic movement seduce women?Recently two American women were picked up on terror charges: one the petite blonde known as "Jihad Jane" and the other, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez. What's even worse is that there are more in the pipeline.Colleen LaRose, whose Internet name is "Jihad Jane," converted to Islam and acted as a screener and recruiter for assassins to murder a Swedish cartoonist who "offended Islam." She was trying to find others like herself-preferably women who would...

Wrongs From The “Right” Bukhari, Islamic Ideology, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Ideology Wrongs From The “Right” BukhariBy Dr. Shabbir AhmedThe Hadith Collection by “Imam” Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ismail Bukhari is considered by Mullahs and their blind followers as the most authentic book on earth after the Quran. Let’s examine it. Most of the references given here belong to Bukhari published by Madina Publishing Company, Karachi, 1982, Printer Hamid & Co. It is nice to see that this version of Bukhari gives us the complete original Arabic text as well which I have checked personally. The translator into Urdu is “Maulana” Abdul Hakim Khan Shahjahanpuri. For the sake of brevity, only the relevant lines have been selected without compromising the meanings and context in the least. Vol = Volume. P or Pg = Page number. # = Hadith or Baab (Chapter) number. Another...