From Yoga to Terrorism, From the Meaning of Muslim to Kafir: An Ummah Deeply Divided

By Aftab Ahmad, New Age Islam  June 30, 2015 As the International Day of Yoga has passed, there is every possibility that the controversy around Yoga will die down. But it has once again brought to the fore how badly divided Muslim leadership is, how unprepared Muslims are to face the complexities of modern life. Yoga is a part of Indian culture and has been in practice in India, both among Hindus and non-Hindus as a form of physical exercise. Since the Union government wanted most Indians to participate in it on Yoga Day, it sparked a row over whether doing Yoga was in accordance with Islamic ethos or not. Some had expected that Muslims would be on one platform either declaring Yoga permissible or non-permissible according to Islamic jurisprudence. But as usual, Muslims...

Saving the Cows, Starving the Children

By Sonia Faleiro June 26, 2015 GANDHI famously denied himself food. And by starving himself to protest British rule, he ultimately made India stronger. But India’s leaders today are using food as a weapon, and they are sacrificing not themselves, but others. Their decisions threaten to make India’s children — already among the most undernourished in the world — weaker still. Earlier this month, the chief minister of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, struck down a proposed pilot project to introduce eggs in free government nursery schools in districts populated by economically disadvantaged indigenous groups. The proposal came from the state’s own officials, but was dismissed by Mr. Chouhan...

In The Name Of Religion, They Kill

By Mohamed Chebarro 29 June 2015 In the name of God they kill. In the name of prophets they kill. In the name of the holy month they kill. In the name of their leader they kill. In the name of a vane idea they kill. They kill too because they disagree with someone else’s god. They kill too because they deem other prophets impostures. They kill too because they reject other people’s beliefs. They kill too to disrupt other faith’s festivities. They kill too because the other is different. In protest to oppression they claim to kill. In protest to their dispossession they insure that they kill. In protest to social norms they disagree with they kill. In protest to their alleged alienation...

Ramadan Soap Rediscovers Egypt's Jews

By Khaled Diab 29 Jun 2015 Love triangles, unrequited love and the torment of separation are staples of Egyptian soap operas. This is especially the case during Ramadan, when fasting and piety dominate during daylight hours and feasting and revelry kick off once the sun goes down. But one Ramadan drama stands out for a love story with an unusual twist. Leila and Ali are the classic boy and girl next door who have been madly in love since childhood, with Ibtihal their jealous neighbour, representing the obtuse angle of this triangle. So far so ordinary. However, Leila is an Egyptian Jew and Muslim Ali is an Egyptian officer deployed to the Palestine front during the 1948 war. To complicate matters further, her brother...

Sectarian Mosque Attacks — Time For Action!

By Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi 30 June 2015 THIS time many years ago, while I was a student in the University of Oregon, US, Ramadan had a unique flavour. Our Muslim community was diverse. Arabs, especially from the Arabian Gulf region were dominant. Pakistanis, Indians, Indonesians and Africans came next in population size. Many new American Muslims joined our community. We may not see all of them in daily prayers, but most attended Friday prayer, and almost all came to Iftar and Eid prayers. In Ramadan, the mode wholly changed. Maybe not much of a change in schools and public space, but it was different in our Islamic Centre with its Ramadan activities. Families helped in lending colour to the atmosphere. Women made...

Sectarianism Is Bad… Until It Is Your Side That Is Inciting It

By H.A. Hellyer 29 June 2015 It’s Ramadan. Against the backdrop of Muslims observing the obligatory performance of the fast, sheikhs and religious authorities will remind the faithful of the saying of the Prophet: “There has come to you Ramadan, a blessed month which God has enjoined you to fast, during which the gates of heaven are opened and the gates of Hell are closed, and the rebellious devils are chained up.” Sages in the past would comment – and warn believers that if there were sins they persisted in the month; they had to take them seriously. For in this month, the whispers and murmurs, beckoning souls to wretchedness – well, that’s all on them. Because the devils, as the adage go, are locked up. One would hope,...

Exposure - Jihad: A British Story

By Deeyah Khan 14 Jun 2015 In Exposure - Jihad: A British Story, I investigate the roots of Islamic extremism in the UK, speaking to many reformed extremists as well as ordinary young Muslims to answer the burning question of why some young British Muslims join fanatical Jihadi cults like ISIS. Why is the message of extremism and Jihadism appealing to young Muslims in the UK and Europe? Although I come from a family with origins in South Asia, I have always struggled to understand the appeal of religious extremism. For Exposure, I spent two years travelling the UK, interviewing British citizens, whose lives had been consumed by extremism. One of these was a pivotal figure: Abu Muntasir. Now a reformed and moderate...

Learning Nothing from Ramadan

By Abdulateef Al-Mulhim 29 June 2015 Before the advent of Ramadan every year, we read various reports doing the rounds in the media showing the number of hours that Muslims around the world would observe fasting in 24 hours. Muslims are spread all across the world but the majority is concentrated in the region just above the equator. The length or duration of a fasting day in Ramadan changes every year but for most of the Muslims, living in the above-mentioned region, usually doesn’t have to fast for long hours. However, those living near the polar circle or to be more precise in countries like Sweden, Norway or Canada, the duration of a fasting day are usually long. In the next 30 years, Ramadan will fall during...

True Secularism, Indonesian Style

By Sreeram Chaulia Jun 29, 2015 I spent the first half of the Islamic holy month of Ramzan in the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia. It was an eye-opening experience, in contrast to more conservative parts of the Muslim world. Traditional piety and devotion was, as expected, evident in homes and mosques. But there was no excessive encroachment of public places for fasting rituals and symbols. Unlike in theocratic Islamic nations, where the state machinery allies with the mosque and imposes strict restrictions and codes on personal behaviour to make religiosity overwhelming, Indonesia’s secular republic strove to emphasise that Ramzan’s observation must not hamper the syncretic identity of the country. An archipelago...

Protecting Girls: Losing the Trial, Winning the War in Indonesia

By Shela Putri Sundawa June 30 2015 On June 18, the Constitutional Court finally delivered its judgment publicly on the judicial review of the proposed change to the marriageable age in the 1974 Marriage Law. Under Article 7 (1) of the law, the minimum marriageable age is 16 for girls and 19 for boys. The plaintiffs, led by the Women’s Health Foundation (Yayasan Kesehatan Perempuan), lobbied to raise it to 18. The court, led by eight men and one woman, comprehensively dismissed the plaintiffs’ arguments with only one dissenting opinion coming (unsurprisingly) from the only female member. The logic behind the final judgment is weak and vague. It even quoted from the Koran. For a country that is fundamentally acknowledged as secular, it is inconsistent of the court to put...