Politics, Plurality and Inter-Group Relations in Indonesia: Strengthening Tolerance

By Jeremy Menchik December 6, 2016 Since democratization began in 1998, Indonesia has been home to radical social movements like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). Indonesians have heard recurrent polemics against faith and other minorities from religious leaders and government officials. In a democratic society, intolerance is an unfortunate manifestation of political liberty. The massive turnout for the 5 November 2016 anti-Ahok demonstration offered a vivid reminder that millions of Indonesians are sensitive to a non-Muslim becoming the political leader of a predominantly Muslim country. While these acts do not negate the success of democratisation, they are a reminder that tolerance must be carefully nurtured and intolerance...

Trump’s Cabinet Members Want Jihad against Political Islam, but Their Efforts Will Fail

By Juan Cole Dec 4, 2016 Several members of Donald Trump’s new team, including National Security Adviser Mike Flynn and proposed Secretary of Defense James Mattis have expressed themselves troubled about “political Islam”  (or in Flynn’s case,  just “Islam”).  Mattis seems to have confused Daesh’s (ISIS, ISIL) idea of a neo-Caliphate (bringing back a medieval papacy-like institution to Islam) with “political Islam” in general.  He wants Americans to ask the question of whether political Islam is good for the US… Gen. Mattis should grapple a little with whether his 2004 Fallujah campaign did not alienate the Sunni Arabs of Iraq, turn them off to the 2005 elections, and pave the way for them to ally with Daesh/...

Global Order: Ideologies, Religions, Sufism and Sindh-Balochistan – III

By Zulfiqar Shah 30 November, 2016 Sindh-Balochistan: Sociological polity and unexpressed aspects - Sindhi and Baloch today have transformed into modern social and cohesive entities, as they were historically. However, the linguistic, ethnic and sub-cultural additions that were resulted by the partition of British India, and after the creation of Pakistan, initiated the process of integration in the societies. Politics is patchy social process, imbibed with the power; therefore state apparatus of Pakistan, like elsewhere in the world today, has particularly determined the social interdependence among and between the indigenous-aboriginal Sindhi and Baloch as well as the migrants, refugees, and immigrants between 1947 and 2016. Nationhood,...

Islam Is an American Faith Tradition

By Khalid Saeed 12/02/16 I am sure everyone has heard them and the American Muslim community has been feeling the insults and the sting of the disparaging comments, remarks and actions against Muslim and Islam. There are individuals, groups, and ‘the Centre for American Progress’ in their report ‘The Fear Inc.’ has identified a network of dozens of foundations which are actively spending millions of dollars in an organized fashion for years to create hate against American Muslims and their faith. Free speech is cherished value of America, but, it is beyond me why and how Islamophobe bigot’s Network is getting away with openly working to create hate against peace loving seven-million strong American Muslim community in the guise of free speech. Our founding fathers envisioned the...

War as Performance: The Fidayeen War Is Performance Theatre

By Praveen Swami December 6, 2016 Left Behind In The Rubble At Nagrota, The Detritus Of A Fidayeen: An assault rifle, ammunition, injectable painkillers, incongruously, a small bottle of cheap, yellow Attar. The terrorist who carried these things, we know from the testimonies of others, would have risen early that morning, bathed, prayed, and shaved himself from head to foot. He’d have darkened his eyes with kohl, like a traditional bridegroom, and then perfumed himself, so he did not stink of war when the Houris he had been promised greeted him inside the gates of heaven. The mother of one such Fidayeen, Imran Majid Butt, wrote this poem: “I wait for the day, O’Allah, when you will call out: ‘Who is the mother of this blood-drenched rose?’” Ever since September’s strike on the...

Hijab-Clad Muslim Cop Called ‘ISIS’, Harassed In US

A Self-Defense Class for Muslim Women In NYC US Embassy in Pakistan Hosts Discussion on Violence against Women Inside A Self-Defense Class for Muslim Women in NYC Edmonton Police Investigate After Man Ties Noose, Threatens Two Muslim Women Pakistan Prepares for Its First-Ever Women’s Kabaddi Championship Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam,-women-and-feminism/new-age-islam-news-bureau/hijab-clad-muslim-cop-called-‘isis’,-harassed-in-us/d/109300 ------- Hijab-clad Muslim cop called ‘ISIS’, harassed in US December 5, 2016 New York: An off-duty hijab-clad Muslim police officer was called “ISIS” and told to go back to her “country” by a white man who...