It Is Time to Clearly Understand the Pristine Message of the Qur’an Rather Than Reading It with the Eye of Its Medieval Era Jurists, Scholars and Ideologues

By Moin Qazi, New Age Islam 30 September 2015 MODERN ISLAMIC THOUGHT IN A RADICAL AGEReligious Authority and Internal CriticismBy Muhammad Qasim ZamanCambridge University Press, 2012 363 Pages$32.99   Few books have handled the theme of modern Islamic thought with such competence as   Muhammad Qasim Zaman. This book combines academic rigour with a focus on the practical ramifications of Islamic thought and how it has influenced the discourse in this radical age.  For those known nowadays as Islamists or fundamentalists, the failures and shortcomings of modern Islamic lands afflict those lands because they adopted alien notions and practices. They fell away from authentic Islam and thus lost their former greatness....

What a Pity That an Event Meant To Foster Spirit of Unity and Brotherhood among Muslims Has Descended Into an Embarrassing Spectacle Feeding On the Deep Divisions within the Islamic World

By Hasan Suroor An event meant to foster a spirit of unity and brotherhood among Muslims has descended into an embarrassing spectacle, feeding on the divisions within the Islamic world “Is nothing sacred anymore?” was the title of a 1980s famous rock album lamenting a love gone sour. But, today, many are asking the same question as last week’s Hajj stampede, in which more than 1,000 pilgrims died while performing one of the most sacred Islamic rituals, is being dragged into a bitter political row between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with both accusing each other of “politicising” a grave tragedy. The increasingly shrill war of words, with bizarre conspiracy theories floating around on both sides, is not just embarrassing but an insult...

Once Temples, Now Madrasas: Dars Among Deities

 By Haroon Khalid  29 September 2015 We stood at the entrance of the temple, not sure if we would be allowed to go inside. It was a double-storey structure with a small round balcony. I stood before a wooden door with intricate patterns, and fading remnants of frescoes on the wall next to it. I could only imagine how beautiful this structure must be from the inside. The only problem was that this temple was not vacant. It wasn’t even taken over by an individual family, as has happened in so many cases. In that situation, I could have requested them to allow me to see the temple from the inside. But this was now controlled by the women's wing of an Islamic religious organisation called Minhaj-ul-Quran, founded by the famous...

Heed Pope Francis' Exhortation مشورة البابا فرانسيس لتفسير مناسب لآيات القرآن الاستعارية والسياقية: يقوله سلطان شاهين للمجتمع الإسلامي العالمي في مجلس حقوق الإنسان

  بيان شفوي في مجلس حقوق الإنسان للأمم المتحدة، جينيف، الدورة ال30 (من 14 سبتمبر حتى 2 أكتوبر عام 2015) سلطان شاهين، رئيس التحرير لنيو إيج إسلام 30 سبتمبر عام 2015 الحوار العام على البند الثامن من جدول الأعمال: " متابعة وتنفيذ إعلان فيينا وبرنامج العمل (ترجمه من الإنجليزية) قد ساهم صاحب السعادة البابا فرانسيس مساهمة بارزة في بحثنا عن السلام والمعركة ضد الإرهابيين الإسلامويين. وأود الوصول إلى المجتمع المسلم في جميع أنحاء العالم مع الرسالة أن موعظة البابا يجب أن تمارس على محمل الجد وتعمل على أساسها، لأنها ليست مجرد نصيحة حكيمة ولكن أيضا بما يتفق مع النصائح المتكررة من القرآن الكريم نفسه. قد وصف البابا فرانسيس أن القرآن الكريم بأنه "كتاب السلام النبوي"، وطلب من المسلمين الحصول على "تفسير مناسب". كما يطلب القرآن من المسلمين...

How Dragging Our Feet On Refugees Creates More Terrorists

By Anne Speckhard September 29, 2015 THE Syrian refugee crisis, building in a horrifying crescendo over the past four years, has set in motion a debate in this country: Should America open her arms to the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” or fold them in a defensive posture born out of fear that refugees will harbor terrorists among them? President Obama directed his administration to take in some 10,000 Syrian refugees this year, a tiny number in relation to the total needing help. The administration emphasized that it would not relax the lengthy criminal and terrorist background checks demanded of refugee applicants, a vetting process that can take 24 to 36 months. Those of us in the security community know this is dangerously long. It is in America’s best interest to...

Journalism In Pakistan: Fear And Favour

By Bina Shah SEPT. 28, 2015 KARACHI — In this summer’s feel-good Indian movie “Bajrangi Bhaijaan,” a Pakistani TV reporter telephones his boss to tell him he has an explosive story about an Indian spy on Pakistani territory who’s not actually a spy, but a man trying to help a lost Pakistani child find her parents. The boss tells him the story isn’t sensational enough, then hangs up, leaving the reporter grumbling that the channel’s executives care only about making money, rather than telling a good story. To anyone familiar with Pakistan’s broadcast media today, the scene will ring true. While Pakistan is already known as the most dangerous country in the world for working journalists — one journalist in Pakistan dies every 38...

What To Do About The Refugees In Calais?

By Anders F Jellberg Sep 28, 2015 CALAIS, FRANCE — Imagine yourself in a sleepy French city by the Channel. There’s a nice beach where you can get an ice cream and take a selfie with the White Cliffs of Dover on the horizon, and a couple of boardwalk restaurants and cafés where you can go for coffee and a croissant. Now get in a car and drive east, past the ferry terminal ringed by barbed wire and police officers toward the chemical plant. The first thing you’d notice is another fence, five meters high, of steel and barbed wire. It runs two miles along both sides of the highway in the direction of the ferry to Dover, England. Behind it lies another country known as the Jungle. Between 3,000 and 5,000 refugees (estimates vary and the fluid population is hard to count), live in...

Heed Pope Francis' Exhortation to Find 'Adequate Interpretation' Of Holy Quran's Contextual, Allegorical Verses, Sultan Shahin Asks the Global Muslim Community at UNHRC in Geneva

Oral Statement, 30th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Geneva (14 September to 2 October 2015) By Sultan Shahin, Editor New Age Islam General Debate on Agenda item 8: Follow-up to and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action 28 September 2015 Mr. President, In our search for peace and battle against Islamist terrorists, His Holiness Pope Francis has made a signal contribution. I would like to reach out to the worldwide Muslim community represented here with the submission that the Pope’s exhortation be taken seriously and acted upon as it is not only a wise counsel but also in conformity with repeated exhortations of Holy Quran itself. Pope Francis has described the holy Quran...